


On A World Called Horizon

by rippler3



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Flirting, Bed Sex, Crossover, Eventual Smut, F/F, Femslash, Horizon world in the Star Wars Galaxy, Lesbian Rey (Star Wars), Lesbian Sex, Masturbation, Might channel some TRoS annoyance, Mutual Pining, Original Machine(s) (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Outdoor Sex, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rare Pairings, Rey Needs A Hug, Sparring, We have a rogue ship inbound
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:13:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 53,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26570470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rippler3/pseuds/rippler3
Summary: Aloy's asked to track a mysterious intruder in Nora lands. She wants to make sure this isn't another threat to her home.Rey's looking for solace, and a place where she can be something other than Rey Skywalker for a while.Both of them are going to get more than they bargained for.
Relationships: Aloy & Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy & Nil (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy & Rost (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy & Talanah Khane Padish, Aloy & Varl (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Rey/Aloy
Comments: 140
Kudos: 79





	1. Interloper

Aloy of the Nora, the Seeker, Sobeck’s Second and hunter of machines, crouches on a hilltop and tries to work out what she’s thinking and feeling. So far she’s thinking a lot of things, in a way that can probably be summed up as “fascinated”.

There’s an intruder in the Sacred Lands. Heralded by roving blue light in the night sky and a sound like rolling thunder. So said the messenger who came to Aloy from the Mothers, asking her to investigate. In truth Aloy’s already intrigued.

And all the more so now she can see the intruder. A young woman, moving along a course parallel to the Daughter River. And seen through a spyglass, she looks… interesting. Dark hair worn in three knots. White and grey garb, shorn of any tribe decorations. There’s a peculiar metal cylinder on her hip. Even from a few hundred metres away, Aloy can see it glinting sometimes.

What to do with her? This woman’s moving with a strange assurance for someone who so plainly doesn’t belong here. And it’s not arrogance because Aloy can see her scanning the horizon, investigating tracks –she’s not even using one of the trails.

It’s spring, and there’s still some snow on the ground, but there’s little in the way of tracks to follow. The interloper doesn’t seem to realise she’s being followed, despite the steps she’s taking.

Even so, it’s a surprise to Aloy when she sees the woman stiffen before she’s got any inkling that something’s wrong. Then she hears the baying, and four machine beasts come bounding over the hill. Jackal shapes, Scorchers.

Three of them run straight at the woman, the fourth curving around on the flank. Their target sheds the pack on her shoulders, tensing to meet them.

Rost would have probably told Aloy to hang back. Let the predators deal with the intruder, and only go in to clean up after.

Why she doesn’t do so is… complicated, though right now it’s a sublimated mix of emotions and half-formed thoughts. Mostly though it’s that Aloy isn’t ready to lose the mystery of who this woman is. And there’s something about the woman’s stance as she faces them down, not recoiling even as the lead Scorcher begins to spray fire ahead.

A beam of yellow light suddenly snaps to life in the woman’s hand. Is it a blade? Aloy’s eyes widen. It is.

The woman throws out a hand and the stream of fire parts as if it’s met an invisible shield. Then she leaps.

Aloy’s not sure how to describe what she does next. She’s not sure it ought to even be possible. The woman twists in midair, coming down on the Scorcher’s back with her blade angled down, burning straight into its spinal plates. It screams, spasms and collapses, the woman springing clear with her burning blade ready to engage the others.

One Scorcher’s already charging, but Aloy’s already got an arrow arcing towards it and her aim is true. It’s a Freeze type, and the machine shrikes when it hits home. Its flame jets sputter out and frost encases its metal skin.

The interloper reacts quickly, lunging in with her bright sword and dealing it a single deathstroke. Aloy, running now, knocks another arrow, aims and looses it at the Scorcher menacing the woman. The interloper somehow sees the arrow coming, throws up her hand and the Scorcher just halts, frozen even before the arrow hits. This one finds a critical spot – instant kill.

Aloy, still running, grins fiercely.

But the woman’s manoeuvre exposes her to the last Scorcher, and only now does she see it. She rolls behind the corpse of its fellow when it pounces, but it pins her with one mighty paw and lowers its jaws to her face. It’s straining visibly – whatever this woman’s strange gift is, she’s using it to hold the Scorcher back, but it’s getting nearer, nearer to crushing her head in its mouth.

Aloy sprints, throwing aside her bow in her haste and drawing her spear. She aims, leaps and slams the point into the Scorcher’s side, shoving it off the woman. Immediately the other is on her feet, bringing her sword of light down on the machine’s neck.

And just like that, as the bright blade withdraws into its hilt, the only sound is their breathing. Finally she gets the chance to study her quarry up close.

Her first thought should be something practical, but instead it’s that this woman is beautiful. A tanned, lightly freckled face which manages to look determined and oddly vulnerable. Clear eyes, bright with emotion. A lean, muscular figure – finally Aloy’s practical instincts return, but at the same time she realises she likes that figure.

Mustn’t be distracted. Got to put on a show of force. Aloy crouches a little, spear not quite pointing but clearly ready for a fight.

Though it doesn’t look like she’s in for a fight. The strange warrior – warrior she so clearly is – returns her weapon to her belt and faces Aloy with empty hands raised. She nods a little to her, inviting her to talk first.

Aloy takes it. “I count that as saving your life, so now you’ve got to tell me who you are and what you’re doing in Nora territory.”

To her surprise, the woman smiles. “Ah, so you do speak Basic here. I wasn’t sure.” Her accent is strange to Aloy. Something about it makes her think of clear glass, but there’s warmth in the woman’s voice. “No argument about saving me – thank you, those things were vicious.” She puts a hand to her chest. “I’m Rey. Some like to call me Skywalker, but I prefer Rey. Can I ask your name?”

“Aloy. Of the Nora.” Head cocked quizzically, Aloy can feel her own frown settling in place. “I’ve travelled far, but I’ve never heard of… Skywalker Tribe, you call it?”

“Not a tribe.” Rey, as Aloy supposes she’ll have to think of her, runs fingers through her hair. “At least not yet. I’m not from round here.”

“Not from the continent?”

A sad little smile crosses Rey’s face. “Think a bit bigger.”

No. Surely not. But then… the lights in the sky, the strange sword, the powers she shows, the way she doesn’t even sound like anyone Aloy knows… this woman is somehow very believable as not being of this world. “If you’re really from another world, then why have you come here?”

A sigh meets her question. “To get away. Figure a few things out, somewhere people respond to my name with “who?” instead of bowing.” She shakes her head as if banishing a thought. “I should apologise. I didn’t know I was trespassing, I really didn’t think. Heck, didn’t realise about the wildlife ‘til I was down here.”

Aloy moves to the nearest metal corpse. “Well, if you want to make it up, I could use a hand here.” She eyes Rey. “Don’t suppose you know machines?”

Rey’s eyebrows shoot up and a delightful grin lights up her face. “Know machines? I was a scavenger for more than ten years, Aloy. Just show me what we’re looking for. And oh-” she puts out a hand and Aloy’s bow springs into her grasp. She makes to hand it over. “Here.”

Aloy stands dumbfounded. “What was that?”

“What was what?”

Aloy levels an accusing finger at the bow. “The thing you just did with me

Rey looks curiously at her. “You really don’t know?” She looks lost in thought for a second, frowning. “Hey, give me the lesson first, then I’ll tell you.”

Aloy’s tempted to press the issue. The curiosity which alternately exasperated and delighted Rost is wide awake right now. But this woman, this Rey, is probably right. Andl

So they get down to business, Aloy talking Rey through the workings of the Scorchers. Rey’s got plenty of questions, crouched on her haunches while Aloy gets into the metal innards of the nearest beast.

“So they’re all like animals? Like, they’re all wild?”

“It’s more complicated than that, but for now it’s close enough. So,” Aloy points. “Shards like these we want to take, they’re good for arrows.”

Rey frowns. “I see. But why hunt them at all? They don’t exactly look like good eating.”

“They don’t. But we do to them.” It’s weird to spell this all out to an adult. Everyone Aloy’s ever known grew up learning it. “The machines breed, after a fashion.”

“They self-replicate?” Rey whistles under her breath. She’s nearly filled a bag with shards. Quick work, Aloy likes it. “And they use biomass as part of that, I’m guessing.

Aloy smiles at her. “At least you’re quick. Yes, they’ll devour man, beast or plant and use that for fuel. Our ancestors nearly lost this world to them, thousands of years ago. So we have to cull and keep them in check.”

“Which is where you come in?”

“Right.” The sky has begun to redden in the east, Aloy notes. “I think that’s enough gathering, Rey. We should find somewhere to pitch camp.” She smiles as her. “I’ll tell you more while we’re looking.”


	2. Two Strangers, So Alike

The snow crunches under Rey’s heavy boots, and she finds it and the slight nip in the air refreshing. The cold night it promises, however, has less appeal for her. Her garb keeps the worst of the cold out for now, at least, and Aloy seems to know where she’s going.

The huntress glances back at her occasionally as they head up the slope. Her bow hasn’t left her hand once in the hour they’ve been on the move.

Rey finds she’s comparing herself against Aloy on a lot of levels. They look quite different, true – Aloy’s skin is pale and her hair is fire, piled up atop her head or trailing behind in an appealing chaos of strands and braids. Her eyes are sharp, little shards of emerald and oh, right now they’re suddenly fixed on Rey.

Caught peeping, Rey tries to find something about her to be innocently interested in. That triangle of metal clipped onto one ear?

That’ll do. She points, trying to ignore the mild suspicion she feels from the redhead. “Is that decorative?”

“Oh this?” Aloy taps a finger against it, and Rey realises there’s a line of blue light running along it. “It’s called a Focus. And no, it's much more than decorative. Helps me read machines, hear ancient voices… I have to remind myself that it’s not really normal.”

Rey raises an eyebrow just a little. “I’ve got something similar, as it happens.”

“Your… gift?” Aloy seems to realise she’s slowed, letting Rey catch her up, and pulls herself back from asking. She turns away from Rey so they’re just walking side by side. “Tell me about it once we’ve got a fire going.”

Her curt surface is a little tricky to get a handle on, but thanks to Luke Skywalker, Rey has some practice there. “About that. Why are we going uphill?”

“There’s a cave up that hill, to the left there.” The sharp eyes, green as glass, flick back to her. “You’re looking at me again.”

“Sorry.” Rey struggles not to. Because while this woman looks different to her, they both move in a way that’s surprisingly alike. It’s a strange mix of physical assurance and a… wariness. Aloy’s got a warrior’s poise, but there’s something vulnerable under the hard surface. “It’s just, you’re… kind of striking. Even to someone from offworld.”

Someone, she thinks, who’s seen things Aloy might have never dreamed of. This world’s sentients appear to be all human. Aloy’s never seen a Mon Calimari, Twi’lek or Neimodian. She has no frame of reference for species whom most of the Galaxy think of as totally normal. She's missing out on so much, and Rey realises she’d like to show her.

Aloy’s thoughts are more down to earth, however. “Funny, if you are from the stars. The way you’d move, I’d have said you were a huntress too.” So she sees it too. Somehow, to Rey, that’s gratifying.

She’s also noted they’ve got similar scars, just above the brow.

“Well,” she replies, “I guess we’re actually quite alike. In a few ways… not least that we’re not great with people.”

Aloy smiles. “I have an excuse. Grew up with people thinking I was even human. Not many would even have spoken to me.”

“I see that, and raise you my parents selling me for booze.”

“Booze?”

“Alcohol.”

Aloy’s eyes widen. “Seriously? That’s dreadful.”

“Well, they did it to keep me safe, but their way of doing it was to sell me to a man with a face like a squashed arse who made me search… does wrecks mean anything to you?” Aloy shakes her head. “OK, made me search ruins for a living. Ruined... star... vessels. You know?" Aloy nods and she continues. "I’d find bits of gear, strip them out and hope they’d buy me enough food.”

“Well, you seem pretty smart for the daughter of morons,” Aloy says airily. Then she winces. “Crap, I’m so sorry-”

“Hey, been there.” Rey puts her hand on the redhead’s shoulder. “Like I say, I’m crap at people things too. I met my best friend because I chased him down and beaned him over the head. Because of a jacket.”

"Truly?"

They both burst out laughing, and Rey feels encouraged enough to lean over and put her arm fully around Aloy’s shoulders, a gesture she returns. “We’re close, Rey,” Aloy whispers, pointing to a dark opening in the rock.

The huntress isn’t wrong about the cave being warmer. Getting out of the wind alone is an immediate improvement, but still the desert-born scavenger wants more heat and she wants it fast.

“So did you bring much firewood?” Aloy quizzes her, as Rey picks the appropriate bag and empties it out. “Hmm, not a bad haul. Could have done with some more kindling, but I’ve got some in my pack anyway.” Then she catches Rey’s eye and the Jedi can almost hear her say “bad with people”. The regret comes through clearly. “I meant to say, that’s astute for a desert-dweller. Can’t have been much call for making fires where you grew up.”

Apparently saying “your world” isn’t something Aloy’s ready for just yet.

Then Rey loses that thread when the little triangle of chrome by Aloy’s ear suddenly lights up, bright blue. Her eyes are on Rey, but there’s something different to her gaze. Rey feels as though she’s being looked… through? Into?

The blue light dims, and Aloy refocuses. As she catches Rey’s eye, embarrassment sets in. “Sorry, I got curious.”

Rey’s brought up short and feels very scrutinised indeed. She leans forward a little, arching an eyebrow. “What did you just do to me?”

“Not _to_ you.” Aloy’s hands are up in a contrite gesture. “I got curious about your tech and wanted to see how it shows with the Focus. It – I mean the little you’ve got on you – doesn’t scan like anything from here.”

“Do you peep at the tech of everyone you meet?”

“No! And you make it sound so much worse than it is, it’s not like I’m looking down your top.” She looks at Rey in a panicky way. “Not that that’s a good comparison!”

“Hey.” Rey leans over and squeezes her shoulder. “Here’s our crap with people thing again, eh?”

“Guess so.”

The huntress goes for something to light the fire but Rey says “Please, let me” and draws her lightsaber. A turn of the switch and the yellow blade flares, before Rey lowers it to start the fire they’ve built.

“Phew, so it is hot,” Aloy murmurs, watching the ignition take hold. “And you call it a what?”

“A lightsaber,” Rey says, extinguishing the weapon and handing it to her. “A laser sword if you want to be crude. The weapon of the… my order.” She hates how halting her words turn when she talks about the Jedi now. Trying to distract herself, she looks into the flames and frowns.

“You don’t sound certain about that, Rey.” Of course Aloy picks up on it. “Don’t you fit in with the other Jedi?”

Rey lets a sigh escape her. “That’s just the thing. There are no other Jedi. I’ve got a friend who could be one, and I… knew someone who could’ve been, but my old teachers were the only Jedi left in the Galaxy and they’re gone now.”

The green eyes are narrowed with confusion, and Rey has to admit, Aloy has every right to be confounded. “It’s a lot, isn’t it?”

“Mostly it’s strange to be told people live on thousands of worlds up there…” Aloy waves a hand at the ceiling “…and to then hear that things are still that rare. This… Force?” Rey nods. “Does it just touch so few people?”

“Oh, quite the reverse,” Rey says. “It’s everywhere, binding and surrounding us. Why it doesn’t come through more on this world I don’t know – I got rather hung up on it to tell you the truth. It’s just…” she lets her head tip back, looking at the stone above her. “So much has happened up there. This huge fight, so many wars rolled into one which all took such a toll. Jedi on one side, their enemies the Sith on the other and then everyone else had to pick a side and it went on for thousands of years. I don’t think I could even sum it up well myself. I was just a piece on the board at the end of it.”

Aloy is quiet, poking the fire a little and coaxing it up the length of a small stick. She looks especially striking in the orange glow.

“Been there too, Rey. I grew up as the girl with no mother. Then one day I found out I was the daughter of the holy mountain, a gift from the goddess or a curse depending on who you asked. And the goddess’s will said this is where you’re going. So I was hurled out into the world and told it was sink or swim.”

Clearly, Rey points out, she swam. And she gets the full story from Aloy, in broad strokes at least. They really do have a startling amount in common though, she notes with envy, Aloy did at least have a father of sorts.

It’s a pleasant change to have anyone at least around her and feeling about to talk about these kinds of things. The events around Palpatine have

“I’d like to see your old home,” she says. “If you don’t have anything better to do, and if it’s still there.”

Aloy smiles softly. “I keep it, yes. And that sounds fine to me, Rey. Three days walking should get us there, two days if we can hitch a lift.” She sees Rey’s quizzical look, but she shakes her head and says “I’ll show you tomorrow if we get the chance. We oughta rest up.”

They park their bags between their bedrolls, piling up to give each other a little privacy. But Rey, taking a furtive glance, still gets a look at Aloy’s bare back when her shirt comes off. She’s slim, taut and honed with corded muscles standing out on her wiry frame. Rey’s so entranced by the sight that she nearly gets caught herself when Aloy looks around.

She flattens herself to her bedroll, very aware of her own quick heartbeat all of a sudden. And she knows it’s not all nerves, though she tries not to think of it as she wriggles out of her own clothes and tries to get comfy.

“Rey?” comes Aloy’s voice. She cranes over, prompting Rey to check that her breasts are covered by the sleeping bag. Not that she's worried about Aloy seeing them, exactly, just that this is... a lot. It's been a while since she was this close to anyone in a state of undress. “You alright?” Her eyes flick briefly over Rey, and her lips part for a moment as if she’s trying to find some particular words.

“Yeah.” Rey manages a smile. “Thanks for bringing me up here, Aloy. Erm… night.”

Aloy's eyes are jewels in the firelight. “Night.”


	3. Getting the Measure of You

Aloy’s up first in the morning, and is sorting firewood to cook the first meal of the day when Rey stirs. She looks over to the Jedi and smiles.

“Did you sleep well, Rey?” She makes an apologetic smile. “I forget sometimes that sleeping on cave floors isn’t normal for most people. I was nearly in my third decade before I slept in a proper bed.”

“Fine, thanks.” Rey returns the smile. “I’m no stranger to uncomfortable nights either. I had a thought though, in case we run into more machines today. We should spar before we set out.”

Aloy nods. “That’s smart. What do you want to use?”

“Not our real weapons,” Rey says quickly. “Not a question of whether I’d beat you, but I don’t know if your spear can withstand my lightsaber. Wouldn’t want to mar your weapon. But,” she says, getting up. “There are some promising branches on the trees outside. Shall we try those?”

Curiosity has Aloy easily persuaded. Before she knows it, they’ve both found branches they like and stripped them of twigs. They square off inside the cave, dressed in vests and leggings.

“Do you go up against many swordswomen?” Rey asks, giving hers an experimental twirl.

“A few.” Aloy smiles, bringing her spear into a defensive position. “How are you with spear carriers?”

“Ah, _well_.” Rey’s grin is a little brittle for a moment. “There were these guys with spears who nearly killed me a few times in about five minutes, once.”

“Just as well we’re sticking to sticks then?”

“Oh, you’re _asking_ for a spanking now.” A look of panic flits across Rey’s face. “Not like that!”

Aloy decides to spare Rey’s blushes and goes in for the first swing. It gets a quick riposte, then she’s on the defensive as Rey reverses her grip and strikes back.

It’s playful, but the competitive side of Aloy, the one which sent her sprinting along a half-fallen track during the proving, soon comes to the fore. The Jedi responds in kind and the cave echoes to their sticks clacking against one another and their shouts and grunts.

It’s not all that far from the few dances the Seeker has taken part in. If anything, it feels like the sort she’s never quite dared to get involved in. The sort that gets sweat flowing, hearts pounding and the dancers breathing hard.

Rey gets the first “kill”, ducking a swing and putting her weapon to Aloy’s throat. “Gotcha.”

Aloy lunges the second Rey pulls away, spinning around her and jabbing the end of her stick into Rey’s thigh. It drops the Jedi to the ground, and she rolls over to find Aloy’s “spear” over her heart. “Don’t get cocky.”

Her opponent frowns for a moment before she springs upright.

Despite Rey’s technique, Aloy realises she has an edge on her in one regard: footwork. Probably the difference between a life spent dodging and finding room to shoot, and one spent getting in close to fight. Either way, it evens the odds.

She’s more of a fighter than Rey, she thinks. Hunter’s instincts, which let her seize on the openings and have her always on the offensive where Rey waits and watches. And if Rey’s swordsmanship doesn’t betray a weakness… footwork.

Her ankle snags Rey’s, just enough to unbalance her, and with a bark of effort she pulls away to catch her behind the knee. The Jedi rolls as she hits the cave floor, but Aloy’s too quick. She pins Rey’s arms with her knees, sitting on her chest with the end of the stick at Rey’s throat.

It’s only after a moment or so that she realises the suggestiveness of the position. Rey’s face is just inches away from…

Aloy gets up so quickly that she forgets at first to offer Rey a hand. The Jedi props herself on her elbows, smiling a little nervously before Aloy remembers and heaves her upright.

“We’ll call it best of three then?” Rey’s eyes are bright. Losing the spar doesn’t seem to dampen her mood, to Aloy’s relief. “Hope I haven’t cost us too much time.”

“Worth it,” Aloy responds, just realising now how hard her heart’s pounding. “That was… invigorating.” She watches Rey begin to gather up her equipment and adds, “Say, I’ve got some spare bits of gear. Wouldn’t hurt for you to look a bit Nora.”

It’s no surprise to Aloy that Rey, clad in grey and blue and sporting some light armour, makes a damn good Nora. She looks… not unlike some of the outsider girls Aloy tangled with in her youth, while Rost flashed a tolerant smile and went for a quiet hunt on his own. But then, they could never stick around…

She has to stop thinking about that. They’re taking a mountain trail, and she needs to concentrate. Rey’s gleefully happy about her new look, Aloy will leave it at that.

The two women hike for a couple of hours, pausing periodically so Rey can admire the view.

“Only in a Galaxy this big could such a beautiful world go unnoticed. I mean, just look!” She points to the broad, wild river that winds between the hills several miles off. “And you’ve lived here all your life?”

“All my life,” Aloy laughs. “Though there’s something about showing this place to an outsider. I get to see it with new eyes.”

Rey starts moving again, and Aloy finds herself watching the other woman. Part of it’s that Rey in motion is pleasing to the eye. She’s got poise to match her athletic build, and deftly traverses the ground. Aloy can very well imagine her combing the wrecked star vessels she’s talked about.

“You fit right in here,” she tells Rey.

“Thanks.”

“Maybe don’t thank me yet. Just over this peak, we’ve got a proper test.” She moves ahead, stopping when she sees the course. “See here.”

“Oh.” Rey gazes down, taking in the zipwires and ledges. “Will those hold?”

“They should, you just need to be careful.” Aloy eyes her cautiously. “Should we try another way?”

Rey puts a hand on her upper arm, and Aloy sees the trust in her deep brown eyes. “Show me the way, and I reckon I’ll do alright.”

She does more than alright. They move swiftly down the rockface, then up the next, along, down again and across a series of bridges and platforms. Birds, disturbed by their quick pace, take off as they pass.

“Who,” Rey asks between leaps, “even built these?”

“My people,” Aloy replies, halting to let Rey catch up. Impressively though, she doesn’t seem to need to catch her breath. “These were made as paths for warriors and messengers. Those sure of foot can travel fast, and easily outpace enemy war parties. Even hostile machines, in a pinch.” She grips a rail and tests it. “We’ll probably have to make some repairs to these soon. They’re good for now, but a few winters and things turn unsafe.”

“Is that going to be your job?” Rey asks her.

“In part. I’m part of the tribe, it’s my duty. Nowadays patrolling and keeping watch is pretty much what I do. Especially while our numbers are still small.”

“And that’s what you want?”

To her surprise, she needs to think a moment about her response. “I want to help the tribe, but I would like something more than that too. I really want to get away from things sometimes, just take off and explore somewhere new.” She scrutinises Rey. “But you know that already? Did you read my mind?”

Rey’s voice is low and soft. “I wouldn’t dare intrude like that, but I can feel your feelings easily and well, I recognise them.”

“It’s what brought you here after all, isn’t it?”

“Partly that.”

Aloy doesn’t have Rey’s gifts, but she can tell that Rey isn’t quite ready to talk about the other parts. She backs off – or rather she presses on, leading Rey down as they near the edge of the range.

“There’s an outpost a couple leagues away. In normal times it would be manned, but with our numbers being so few, we’ll have it to ourselves.”

“Will there be pots?”

Confusion seizes Aloy’s face. “Pots?”

Rey smiles. “Well, I’ve got some salted meat in my pack, and with all this snow to melt, we could rustle up a good stew. Would you like that?”

Her grin is infectious, Aloy finds. “Rey, I wouldn’t have taken you for a cook but I’m in. Sounds like just the thing to keep the cold out. But for now…” She raises an eyebrow, eyeing the ledge and rail the at the end of the platform.

Rey’s eyes widen, and then widen again as Aloy takes the coil of rope from her belt. “You’re joking.”

Aloy puts her free hand on her hip. “Get your own rope ready, Rey. Now, see this rail here?”

“I see it, now what do I - _Aloy!_ ”

Aloy’s already in the air, casting her rope skyward and tensing for the yank when she hooks the rail. From there, it’s the usual swift slide to the stone ledge below and the reassuring thud of her boots when she hits. With a flick of her wrist, she brings the rope slipping to ground.

Rey’s rope drops to her about half a minute later, a telltale sign of understandable nerves. Though to her credit, Rey quickly follows, slithering down with practiced control.

Elation doesn’t entirely hide the fact that she’s rather cross. “You could’ve talked about it first. Just a little?”

“Sorry,” Aloy says, trying not to look too pleased about discovering that Rey looks cute when she’s annoyed. “I’ve gotten too used to soloing these courses. But from what you’d said, I figured your ropework was gonna be tight.”

Rey gives her a big exaggerated scowl which crumbles into a hearty smile. “Cheers. Now, shall we get to that outpost?”

“Sure. I wanna try your cooking.”

The outpost is on the cosy side. No beds, as Aloy regretfully tells Rey – then she ruefully says “I didn’t used to say that.”

Rey wasn’t a cook for a long time, but she’s been making up for it and Aloy seems to enjoy the soup she stirs up. Over dinner they swap more stories, Rey talking about Finn, Han, Poe, Luke and Leia. Aloy tells her of Teb, whom she saved in her youth, and her coarse but kind friend Erend.

Rey notes a distance between Aloy and all these people, except Rost who was practically her father, but who is of course long lost. Perhaps for most people it wouldn’t be noticeable, but Rey recognises it immediately. “You don’t see any of these people as often as you’d like, do you?”

“No,” Aloy sighs. “Duties take me here and there, though it’s rare that I just get to point and say “I’m gonna go that way.” There’s always a plan, and usually it’s someone else’s, you know? I mean,” she takes a sip of soup, but her eyes don’t leave Rey. “I know you do.”

“But you can never really say it.” Rey sees the faint sadness in her companion’s face. “Because people wouldn’t understand. It’s a _great honour_ , after all. Wouldn’t do to be ungrateful for the gift so many people would die to have.” But then, she has died for this gift. Died _because_ of this gift, she corrects herself.

It’s frankly insane, even cruel, that the Force singled her out for this duty. To take a girl whose parents were murdered, leaving her to struggle every day for her survival, and suddenly make it her duty to protect the Galaxy. It’s an insane thing, to be duty-bound to protect those would never have cared if she even existed.

“All I wanted was to belong,” she said. “To find some ordinary corner of the Galaxy where I could belong. Turns out that because of my bloodline, my place is above everyone else, which means I’m apart from everyone else. I have to serve, when I just wanted to be free.”

Aloy is watching curiously, visibly holding back, but Rey can see the emotions in those clear green eyes. She feels the stirrings of a conviction that this woman, this beautiful woman from a strange world who she met only yesterday, might just know her better than anyone else alive.

Then she shakes herself, frightened of saying anything more. “I should get some sleep. The pace you set really took it out of me. And our little tussle earlier.”

Aloy doesn’t fully succeed in hiding her disappointment. “Sure, Rey. But thanks for hearing me out on that. Normally people want the story of what I did. You seem to actually be after _my_ story.”

Rey turns from where she’s laying out her bedroll. “I am. If I simply wanted great deeds, I’d read a book or talk to a chronicler. You’re interesting for who you are, Aloy.” She pauses. “Admittedly it’s also cool that you can fight and hunt and do all those other things.”

“Nearly as cool as your Jedi stuff,” Aloy offers. “Though I guess you hear that a lot. Every damn boy…”

The snort Rey lets out is pretty much a reflex. “What the boys say doesn’t matter much to me.”

“You mean you… _hey_.” The bottle-green eyes light up, and Rey’s heart skips a beat as she realises what Aloy’s about to say. “That makes two of us, then. So you hear about it from every damn girl?”

“Too much,” Rey says with feeling. “Every girl I like is too eager to learn everything about me, too starstruck, for me to get to know them. Let alone have a real spar with because they just assume I’ll beat them and at the same time, they’re scare of hurting me.” Being venerated gets old fast, it turns out. Aloy’s the first in a long time not to treat her as if she’s fragile. “I can’t get close to someone who just wants to marvel at me – and I know right, _such_ a stupid, special-person problem. But it _is_ a problem for me. And well…”

She probably shouldn’t say it.

“…I like you, Aloy.”

Before she can put herself in a more precarious position, she sheds her outer clothes and wriggles into her sleeping bag. All the while, she’s keenly aware of Aloy trying not to watch.

Rey wakes in the pre-dawn light, to a strange sound. Halting gasps that she recognises as Aloy’s, which is enough for her to take hold of her lightsaber before she realises the sounds are of pleasure. Then she realises there’s a rustling from Aloy’s side of the bags, and there’s a fluttering quality to her companion’s breaths which make something inside Rey’s belly go taut. She feels heat pooling in her stomach, and between her legs she’s… oh Force, she’s wet.

Up til now, Rey’s been trying to ignore her attraction to this fierce woman who’s so strange and yet so like her. But now, with Aloy pleasuring herself…

She can’t let her new friend find out she’s awake. Even if, to her mounting horror, it’s making her really want to touch herself. And her treacherous mind is bringing up images of just how Aloy might be pleasuring herself, wondering if she’s fire-kissed down there as well as up top. Is she as wet right now as Rey is?

It doesn’t help that Aloy’s want is radiating from her, a primal want. That, on top of everything else, is too much to ignore. Finally Rey gives in, settling for biting the hem of the coat she uses as a pillow.

She slips a hand down her knickers, slowly, putting it in just the right place for her fingers to circle her clit without any telltale rustling. A wave of pleasure moves through her, and she bites down harder on the coat.

The thoughts she needs come easily. The memory of Aloy’s body in motion, sparring with her, close and then on her, are so fresh. It hardly takes any effort to go further, and imagine them entangled in another way, this time skin on bare skin. Rey gets the idea that Aloy’s a forceful lover.

Mercifully, she doesn’t need to keep quiet for too long. She’s turned on to an unreasonable degree and it only takes a couple of minutes to bring herself to orgasm, not much longer than it takes Aloy to reach her climax and stifle her moans with what might be the back of her hand.

That tips her over. Rey’s eyes scrunch close and her mouth clamps down on the fabric so hard that she worries about damaging it, but she can’t relent. Can’t make a sound, mustn’t be heard. Slowly, so slowly, she releases the breath she’s been holding in, so quietly that Aloy doesn’t hear a thing.

She relaxes gradually, feeling her heart thumping away. As she feared, this has done nothing to alleviate her feelings for Aloy. She can hardly think of anything except her she wants the other woman to do this for her, and how she wants to give Aloy pleasure herself.

That, however, can wait until tomorrow. Rey’s head is spinning, but luckily she’s still tired from yesterday, and it’s easy to sink into the afterglow of her climax. Merciful sleep takes her again.


	4. Hoof and Tooth and Claw

Something’s up with Rey. A little something, but it’s there, and Aloy wonders if she didn’t get a bit reckless with her dawn “session”.

She really shouldn’t have. Bad habits from too much time going alone. And stupid reckless when she object of desire was only two feet away. Sure, Rey’s been looking at her as well, but that’s no guarantee. Might just be because she’s never seen a Nora before. Aloy, recklessly, finds herself hoping it isn’t just that.

Still, Rey’s… lovely. She’s exactly Aloy’s type, enough so that had she just run into Rey in a tavern, she’d have absolutely gone for a roll in the hay with her. And beyond the physical, she’s kind, attentive and funny, despite social skills which, like Aloy’s, could probably use sharpening. There’s an odd kinship between them, Aloy fancies. The Seeker, anointed by the Goddess, and the Jedi, bearer and wielder of this strange mystic power.

Despite the cacophony of thoughts and feelings inside her head, she doesn’t say anything until she’s back from scoping the outside, finding Rey starting to cook breakfast. “Everything alright, Rey?”

Rey’s head snaps around just a little too quickly, nearly enough for Aloy to lose her own composure. “Yeah. You good to move out after we eat?” Pause. “You’re looking at me in a funny way, Aloy.”

“Am I?” She quickly glances everywhere but at Rey. It probably doesn’t work. Answer the question instead. “Yeah, go in ten minutes?”

Rey cocks her head in a quizzical way for a moment, then she lets it slide. “Sure.”

They make quick progress. It helps that they come across a few Striders as they descend into a valley.

Upon sighting them, Aloy turns to Rey, pulling out her spare Corruptor cylinder and a Focus. “We can use this to take them over. Overriding, we call it. Once you've applied this, you can use your Focus to link to a machine.”

“How’s it work?”

“Well, we get in close. Can’t let them notice us, but if you can do that, you touch this to the machine and activate it.”

The brunette’s eyes are wide with excitement already. “And that gets us steeds?”

“Yes, but don’t get too excited just yet.” Goodness, she sounds like Rost to herself. “This needs stealth. We’ll go through the long grass. I trust you can sneak?”

Mercifully, Rey seems to do stealth just fine. They advance slowly through the long grass. There are two Striders at the very edge of the herd.

“I’ll take the one on the right,” Aloy whispers. “Sure you know what we’re doing?”

“Yep.” Rey nods. “Get up close, touch it to the machine and…” she mimes flicking a switch.

“Good. And good luck.”

Aloy, moving with an assurance born of experience, is quicker, slipping out from the grass to catch her Strider and override it. She keeps low, not wanting to alarm the other straggling Strider as Rey steps silently from cover. She already has the Override in hand, and slowly, slowly, she presses it to the metal hide of the Strider.

For a moment, Aloy holds her breath. Then there’s a flash, and the machine’s lights turn soft blue. Delight steals over Rey’s face, and she turns to give Aloy a shaky thumbs up.

Aloy returns it – and with a springy jump, she hops up onto her new steed. Rey clambers on a little more slowly, egged on by Aloy’s encouraging grin.

“How’s your balance?”

Gingerly, Rey tests her posture. “I think I’ve got it.”

“At a girl. Now, tap your heels on its flanks to get it moving.”

“Right, so like – whoah!” Rey’s Strider kicks immediately into motion, and for a moment she’s on the verge of falling off before she regains her balance and brings the machine back under control. Aloy nudges her steed into motion and follows, whooping cheerily.

“I’m riding!” Rey shouts when she catches up, following it with a hooting laugh. “I’m bloody riding!”

“Yeah you are, Rey!” Aloy cries. The flash of Rey’s grin, the way the three knots of her braids bounce with every gallop, are a hearty boost to Aloy’s spirits.

Heavy hoofbeats carry them quickly over the snow, rock and grass as the valley gives way to open ground and patches of forest. Their whoops carry across the tundra.

They’re both so caught up in Rey’s excitement that they don’t notice the monster until it breaks from the foliage. It comes from the right, Aloy’s side, in a blur of black and red metal. A mouth that could swallow a human whole, lined with metal teeth, opens up to engulf her.

With no time to swerve away, she kicks off the Strider. The predatory machine’s teeth clamp down on its body. The Strider screams, a horrible noise, but only for a couple of seconds before the attacker rips it into chunks.

“What is it?” Rey shouts frantically to her.

Aloy, having got clear, just manages to draw a breath. “Ripclaw!”

She gets just a moment to assess the machine, firing up her Focus for a read. This is a new one for her, but she’s heard of them before. A bit like a smaller Thunderjaw, but it’s still plenty powerful and it’s far faster than its big cousin. There’s also a cannon on its back which must pack a real punch.

It’s not exactly small anyway. One foot covers most of the broken Strider’s torso as it fixes on Aloy. The clawed hands which flex murderously could easily grasp Aloy – and shred her.

She pulls her bow and gets a few shots off, peppering its face with fire arrows. But it barely recoils and goes straight for her. Aloy rolls aside, trying to get clear, trying to get another good shot.

Which is when Rey charges in to intercede, tilting hard on her Strider. The yellow blade of her lightsaber takes the Ripclaw along its flank, leaving a glowing orange gash on the metal plates which spills smoke and coolant. The monster roars, but Aloy catches it with another arrow and Rey’s already coming around for another swing.

The heavy tail sweeps over her. Rey leans back, gripping the Strider hard with her thighs and just keeping hold. Then she pulls herself upright and brings the saber slashing down.

She lands her second blow, wounding her enemy and making it bellow. The trouble is, so too does the Ripclaw land a blow. One taloned hand catches Rey’s Strider, puncturing its armour and shaking Rey loose. The wounded machine collapses with a shrill scream.

Rey rolls clear, getting to her feet as the Ripclaw turns back to face her. The cannon on its back comes into play, whirring to life before it blasts off a volley of red laser shots. Rey bats them off with her lightsaber, but barely.

She won’t outrun the Ripclaw without help. Aloy sends another arrow to strike the gun and send it flying free from the creature’s back.

It buys precious time for Rey to get clear. The Jedi races over to Aloy, sparing herself the sight of the Ripclaw taking the head off her flailing steed. They’ve pissed it off, enough that it wants to kill the nearest thing just to slake that anger.

Rey tenses as it moves towards them again. “Well this is shit.”

“You’re telling me,” Aloy replies, loosing another arrow.

It hits, and this time it does appreciable damage to the beast’s body, as she catches a spot Rey’s slashed and armour peels off. But by the Goddess, this thing is fast.

It’s closing. Rey goes for it with her saber, but all she manages is a glancing blow and she has to throw herself to the side, as its mouth yawns open and snaps closed on the air where she just was. She lands roughly in the dirt. The Ripclaw doesn’t let up for a second, and Aloy cries out as its talon swings at Rey.

The claw stops in midair. Aloy looks past it and sees Rey, her hand outstretched and her teeth bared with effort. This is the Force. In that moment of understanding, Aloy twists aside and drives her spear into the machine’s side.

Rey rolls away, but Aloy’s spear lodges in place.

The claw swats Aloy’s shoulder. Pain explodes in her arm and everything goes sideways – literally. She flies through the air and slams down in the snow, groggily raising her head to see her companion facing the beast alone.

Rey screams with anger and throws out a hand. Something in the very air constricts. Aloy can feel it, dazed as she is. There’s a horrible, grinding noise and with a start she realises that it’s coming from the Ripclaw.

The machine is… crumpling, the holes in its armour widening as if it’s being crushed in the jaws of an even bigger, unseen monster. Rey doesn’t finish it this way, though. She leaps, slashing down with her saber, and the huge head drops to the ground, followed by the Ripclaw’s body. Aloy feels the crash of it hitting.

Everything goes dark for a moment. Might be more than a moment. Things are fuzzy when they don’t hurt. Blood loss, some bit of Aloy’s brain tells her.

“Aloy? _Aloy!_ ” Rey’s kneeling over her. Her eyes are wide and emotion wells up in them. “Stay still, Aloy. I’m going to fix this, just… keep still.”

Aloy begins to whimper, how can Rey fix this? Her arm’s smashed, she can feel the stabbing pains. But then Rey puts her hand on the break, and the pain vanishes.

Rey’s doing something, and it feels so strange that for half a minute, Aloy doesn’t realise what it is. But then she understands. She’s healing. Rey is healing her, fixing injuries that should take weeks or even months.

It should hurt, her flesh and bones coming back together, but somehow the sensation is profoundly soothing.

And suddenly, focus is back. Aloy blinks.

“Are you alright?” Rey puts a hand to her cheek. “Take it slow. You did lose a lot of blood, might still be woozy.”

“Well, it could be a lot worse,” Aloy replies. “And now you’re close enough for me to do this.”

She darts a kiss to Rey’s lips. Rey gasps, and then hugs her tight.

Aloy squeezes her right back, kissing her freckled cheek. “So, I guess we really do work well together.”


	5. Steam

They move slowly after that, having cleaned themselves up a bit and eaten. They’re both tired from the fight, and add to that Aloy’s injury and Rey’s exertions in healing her.

Despite all that, Aloy has broken her usual quietness and can’t stop babbling, almost all of it being praise for Rey.

“It’s incredible! You’re incredible! How did you get this power?”

But thinking about it immediately leaves Rey downhearted, and Aloy’s plainly startled to see it. She tries to explain “It’s not really my power. I just got it from my grandfather.”

And the full story comes out – she’s an indirect by-blow of the sorcerer who ruled most of the Galaxy, then died and hid himself so thoroughly that his new empire didn’t even know who its master was. Who had manipulated his granddaughter to kill him just to take her over.

“I was ready to do it too. I had no control over anything, I figured. I was just a piece on the board that the Jedi and Sith were tussling over. None of my decisions mattered, so I thought why not? Why not at least hurt the man who took so much from me?”

Aloy overtakes her a little, frowning at her. “But you were saved, weren’t you?”

“By a man who I’d tried to redeem and failed. Ben was his name. He was… we were two sides of one entity. Our souls were one and believe me, I don’t know how that worked. But it meant that I kept being pulled back to him, trying to bring him over to our side.” Rey lets her shoulders sag. “And I failed every time. He was winning, he was going to bring out the dark in me and make me into a monster. Until one day his mother just… cast a spell and he went back to the boy he once was. He didn’t learn anything, he just… turned good. Nothing like the legends.” Her sigh is a little cloud in the air in front of her face. “It almost feels like a joke, especially when you get to what happened next.”

“Which was?”

“We went to face my grandfather together. A doomed effort, he was so much more powerful than us. He threw Ben down a pit and blasted me with lightning. We were finished. But then the voices of all these dead Jedi came to me, and they filled me with power and I blasted back. Burned my grandfather to ashes.”

Aloy’s grin is back. “Truly? Rey, that’s incredible, how did you handle so much power?”

“I couldn’t. It killed me.” Rey says it so bluntly that the other woman stops dead, looking disbelievingly at her. “The power that the Jedi caused to run through me burned me out completely. I was lying dead when Ben crawled out of the hole, and he did… he used the healing skill I used on you, and it killed him.”

“And that was it?” Confusion is written all over Aloy’s face.

“Yes,” says Rey firmly, trying not to think of that kiss. The one that she can only attribute to the Dyad, the one that was followed by the feeling that half of herself had been cleaved away.

She’s had one or two fleeting trysts since then, but only with women. She’s sure she’s just into women. But then again _destiny_ has never cared about what a person wants, Jedi or not. It just pushes you where it will, and the Force had decreed that Rey and Ben Solo belonged together. Until one of them died anyway.

“That was it. Now everyone acts like I performed these great deeds, and I don’t feel like it was me doing any of it.”

“Surely there’s more to you than that.”

Rey feels the tears prick at her eyes. “I used to think that. I want to believe it again – to be like you, Aloy. Standing on my own feet, regardless of where I came from.”

“I _was_ guided by others too.”

“But you made choices in a way that I didn’t. Or maybe I couldn’t.” Rey sighs, looking up at the deep blue of the afternoon sky. “What does the Force even want with me? It made a man who I had so much reason to hate be my soulmate instead. And just when I thought we could reconcile and figure out what that all meant…” She snaps her fingers. “Dead, gone. Well done Jedi Rey, you’ve saved the Galaxy. Now feel half of yourself die. But oh, you can take a new family name, and that will feel like enough… for all of five minutes.”

“Doesn’t it help?” Aloy asks, looking worriedly at her. “Being a Skywalker and not a Palpatine?”

“I honestly think I was happier being no one.” Rey gives Aloy a long, sorrowful look. “At least that meant I was my own person. Now I live in fear of someone telling me they love me, and knowing that it’s the Skywalker they love, not Rey.” Those trysts have all been messy, drunken things, Rey stealing away each time before the other woman could learn who she really was.

“That’s a shame,” Aloy says. She hesitates for a moment, then adds, “For what it’s worth, you seem pretty great as just Rey.”

“Thanks Aloy. Really, that means a lot.”

“Hey, thank _you_.” Aloy takes hold of her hands for a moment. “I’d have been crippled if not for you.”

“You’re welcome.”

The fervent hope forms in Rey that Aloy’s kiss wasn’t just about gratitude. They move on in silence. There are hills close again, on their right.

“This might sound a bit odd,” Rey says haltingly. “And I don’t know how your people do about hygiene, but…”

Aloy smiles at her. “You want to know if we wash? You’ll be pleased to know we’re not savages then. At least, not to the degree our neighbours think.”

“Yeah.” Rey grins bashfully back. “And sorry for the way I said it. Just, I’m a bit whiffy here.”

“Well, there’s a hot pool about three miles off, up the mountain track. It’s forested and far away enough from the settlements that most people don’t even know it’s there. You need to unwind, Rey, and there’s no better place.”

“Ooh, entice me.”

They lapse into a comfortable silence as they ascend the track, but eventually Aloy’s curiosity gets the better of her.

“So Rey, all of what you told me. That’s what you’re here to figure out?”

“Yeah.” Rey bites her lip, clearly deliberating what to say.

“And why here?”

“Because no ships come to this world, Aloy. No one here knows who Rey Skywalker is and has an errand or quest for her.”

Aloy doesn’t say anything, just waiting for Rey’s next words.

“For so long I haven’t known what I’m doing, what I want. People talked to me like I was leading the fight, but I was just doing missions that other people sent me on, or responding to what Palpatine did using Kylo Ren or Snoke.” She shakes her head. “None of it was ever under my control. The will of dead Jedi, the Force or destiny, yanking me here and there. I need to know what I want.”

Aloy draws close and puts an arm around her. “Then let’s get you clean and relaxed. That always helps me.”

A little climbing brings them to their campsite. The ledges are why Aloy likes this spot – together with the isolation, it means neither people nor machines come here, which would make their being here much less tenable. The need to climb means that it’s safer to make camp here. They get down to that first.

The sun sinks low as they pitch their tents, and by the time they go to the pools, it’s begun to glow a warm pink which catches in the steam.

Rey’s anticipation and nerves have been building together since Aloy first mentioned the pools, and she can feel the same feelings radiating off her. But underneath there’s a steely resolve and desire, burning low but hot like embers.

When they reach the hot pools, they both strip quickly, matter-of-factly. But it’s a struggle for Rey to be business-like as they wash. Her companion’s naked body is radiant amid the steam. Up until now, Rey has thought that “weak at the knees” was an exaggeration, but she’s glad to be able to sit in the pool’s shallows. Here, she can just admire the view.

Aloy’s breasts are small and neat, and Rey can’t help but imagine how their softness must feel when the rest of her is firm, toned muscle. Her nipples are hard in the cool air, and when Aloy’s smallclothes drop, the hair between her thighs is just as red as her tresses. As red as Rey imagined last night.

Aloy’s mind is more on her arm, now she’s washed the dried blood off and is relaxing opposite Rey. “There isn’t even a scar,” she smiles.

“Well,” Rey says nervously. “I wouldn’t have wanted to leave a mark. You’ve got such a great body, after all.”

“It serves the tribe,” Aloy says. “A hunter must be honed.”

How can they still be this guarded, after Aloy’s kiss before? When they’re here, naked together?

Frustrated by the other woman’s oblique reply, especially when she can see Aloy looking at her, Rey finally breaks through her own shyness. “I don’t mean like that. I mean you _look_ great. You’re… Aloy, you’re gorgeous. Your lovers must count themselves very lucky.”

“Not many lovers.” Aloy looks regretful. “Not for a while. Honestly… I’ve had fumbles and tumbles, but love seems to be something I just see and hear about. Like you, I guess, wanting someone to just want Rey and not a Skywalker. But surely you had some fun before that, when you were with the Resistance?”

Rey shakes her head, wet hair flopping with the motion. “Between training and worrying I didn’t make time, and by then it was scary to let anyone get close.”

“I know the feeling,” Aloy says quietly. Then, with more force, “Rey, I don’t give a fuck what a Skywalker is. I only know one Skywalker, she saved my life and now she’s sitting across from me, she’s beautiful and just looking at her right now starts this ache in my cunt-” She claps her hands to her mouth, eyes wide, but too late.

And frankly, Rey thinks, thank fuck. They’re sitting awkwardly across from one another, and Rey’s starting to find it all just a little silly. “So… we’re two young women, in damn good shape. We can’t judge one another. And…” She stands, and her heart beats harder as Aloy’s eyes follow the water streaming down her body. The knowledge that Aloy really does desire her is intoxicating, incitement to flaunt herself in ways that Rey would normally never dare. “We both want each other. So why don’t we just…”

“Yes!” Aloy surges to her feet, grabbing Rey, and the two women kiss. Maybe they’re clumsy, but Rey doesn’t care if they are.

Their hands roam eagerly as they press together, stroking and squeezing. Aloy’s arse is supple and firm in Rey’s grip, and the heat of her body against Rey’s is delicious. Desire envelops her, a rosy haze to match the mist.

“Rey,” Aloy whispers, squeezing her tight. “ _Fuck me._ ”

Rey kisses her again, and when she breaks off she showers Aloy’s chest with kisses, chasing the blush there down to her breasts.

She takes one in her mouth, sucking gently and rolling her tongue against the pert nipple, hard from the chilly air. Aloy sighs in her ear, and it spurs Rey on.

“Gotta have you,” she pants, pushing Aloy up against the side of the pool. “I want you, _fuck_ I want you.”

The huntress’ muscular belly, taut and defined, just begs to be caressed and stroked. To say nothing of further down, the parts of her that Rey heard her touching last night. Her pubic hair is soft where Rey’s is coarse, and now she’s so close to the other softness…

She stops with her hand on the auburn mound and whispers, her mouth close to Aloy’s ear. “Do you want it?”

“Do it.” Aloy’s voice is rough, husky with desire. “I need your touch there.”

The words shred whatever restraint Rey has left. Roughly she pushes Aloy’s legs apart, kissing her hungrily as she slips a hand down to the other woman’s sex. She finds her clit hot and throbbing, and Aloy’s breasts tremble with little fluttering breaths. Seems she wasn’t exaggerating about an ache, and all Rey wants right now is to relieve her.

Aloy gasps at the first touch to her clit, and again as Rey starts to rub, moving in little circles. Then she moans as Rey lowers her mouth to suck at a nipple again, slipping fingers slowly across her pearl and her labia.

The wet heat of Aloy’s cunt is irresistible, and Rey redoubles the pressure as Aloy holds her tight, whimpering and juddering. She feels the redhead start to move against her hand, desperate for all the friction she can get.

The wetness on her fingers, hands clutching her arse and shoulder tightly, the way Aloy writhes in her arms in that carnal ripple of muscle… it all starts an ache of Rey’s own building between her legs. She takes her mouth away from Aloy’s breasts, cupping her cheek so they’re staring into one another’s eyes.

The sight of Aloy’s pleasure is something she just wants to drink in, feeling the same emotions which radiated from her last night but now so much stronger. The pink glow which suffuses the steam around them is even deeper, and to Rey’s eyes it just accentuates Aloy’s beauty.

“Look at me, Aloy,” she breathes. “I want to see your face when you come for me.”

It doesn’t take much longer, and a plaintive, yearning look takes hold of Aloy’s face. Rey makes a spiral of her fingers on the redhead’s clit and the yearning dissolves into astonished ecstasy, Aloy crying out as the orgasm overwhelms her. And from there she subsides into a broad, satisfied smile, riding Rey’s attentive hand to a gentle finish as the two women lock lips again.

“You’re glorious, Aloy,” Rey tells her when they break off. “Stars, you’re gorgeous.”

She means every word. She’s never known any woman to climax so hard at her hands, nor, when Aloy recovers, to kiss and caress her so fervently in return.

Then they’re moving. Aloy steers her to the shallow side of the pool, pushing her to sit on the edge. “Your turn, Rey. Lay down.”

Rey lowers herself slowly onto the rock and snow, her hesitance overcome by Aloy’s ardour. Aloy leaves a trail of searing kisses which have Rey gasping, as her fingers tangle in her lover’s fiery locks.

Aloy lingers at Rey’s breasts, but the insistent caresses to her thighs make it clear where she most wants to be. Soon she’s spreading Rey’s legs, moving steadily down and brushing her lips against the dark brown curls. Maddeningly, she stops right there, staring into Rey’s eyes.

“I want your cunt,” Aloy whispers. “Let me kiss you there Rey, all I want’s to please you.”

“Do it to me,” Rey replies. She wants it, needs it. Anything to make the feeling between her thighs bloom into release.

Aloy kisses her vulva, first haltingly but with soon hard and fervently in a way that makes Rey tremble. Warming to it, she fixes Rey with a wicked smile and looses her tongue, licking up and into Rey’s slit.

It’s like nothing Rey’s felt before, and she lets out a quavering whimper. All music to Aloy’s ears, as she swipes her tongue over Rey’s clit, reaching up with one hand to squeeze her breast. The other rests on Rey’s bush, fingers stroking gently while Aloy applies just a little pressure with her palm. It only adds to the ripples of pleasure which course through Rey.

They’re still building. Aloy’s given her so much already, fervently pushing Rey to the brink of ecstasy, and somehow there’s even more to come.

It’s incredible, caught between the cold of the snow on her back, the hot water on her legs and the heavenly warmth of Aloy’s mouth against her sex. Her fingers dig into the white powder as that wondrous tongue parts her vulva again, Aloy sucking greedily as Rey’s pleasure trickles from her.

Rey whinnies and whines, writhing on the snow before bliss erupts between her legs and she screams Aloy’s name to the skies. She goes still, feeling slick pour from her and Aloy eagerly licking and sucking it up.

For a few moments, she’s still, wiped out by the crashing wave of her bliss. Then Aloy’s on her, kissing her deeply so Rey tastes herself on her lover’s tongue.

“That,” the Seeker tells her in a rumble of satisfaction, “is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen, heard or tasted.”

“And for me,” Rey replies, squeezing Aloy’s buttocks as their foreheads press gently together. “You gave me the most beautiful thing I’ve ever felt.”


	6. Entanglements

They couple again in their tent that night, breaking the quiet of the tundra with whispers and moans. Defying its cold with the heat they share.

Their lovemaking in the pool was a rushed affair, all pent-up desire suddenly breaking loose. Now, with that initial burst spent, Rey and Aloy can indulge, luxuriate. Under their cloaks and blankets, they’re entwined, basking in each other’s warmth and desire.

It’s everything Aloy fantasised about when she pleasured herself in the cabin, everything and more. She’s on top, with Rey splayed beneath her. She slips her hand down, fingers gliding over warm skin and hair as Rey squirms against her. Going further, she finds the curls damp. Goddess’ glory, the Jedi is sopping wet.

“There you are,” she says softly. With her fingers, she toys with Rey’s lower lips, running her finger along the slit with just enough pressure to dip a little inside and elicit a sigh of anticipation. “There you are, Rey, right where I want you.”

Rey’s own hands are busy, one cupping Aloy’s breasts while the other slips lightly back and forth over her clit.

“We’re going to need – _ah!_ ” Rey gasps as two of Aloy’s fingers slip between her folds and into her cunt. “Gonna need to wash again tomorrow.”

“Good,” Aloy growls, grazing the brunette’s collarbone with her lips. “Don’t think I got enough of you in the pool yet.”

Her lover squirms as Aloy’s fingers slide deeper into her, an undulation of her toned, slender body under Aloy’s.

“ _Yes_ ,” Rey whines as Aloy thrusts. “Yes Aloy, it feels so right. I wanna give it to you too.” With one finger, then two, she gently works her way into Aloy’s opening, teasing a little whine out of her. “Does that feel good?”

“You know it does. By the Goddess, just feel how wet I am for you.”

Rey’s grinning again. “For me?”

“All for you.” Aloy thrusts against Rey’s palm, seeking friction on her clit, needing her lover deeper in her. Rey’s thumb rubs swiftly against her clit, and she lets out a satisfied moan that makes a grin flare up on Rey’s face. With her free hand, she strokes down Rey’s hard stomach, feeling the slow sighs which course through her.

“This is even better than when I heard you touch yourself,” Rey blurts.

Aloy hesitates, just for a moment. “You heard me?”

Her answer comes with a hard, hungry kiss. “I came just listening to you.” Rey’s eyes are sparkling, drinking in Aloy’s arousal just as she must’ve done that night. “Could barely stop myself climbing onto you. And now I’ve got you, now I can feel your sex… Aloy, it’s better than I dreamed.”

It’s mutual. Rey’s pleasure turns Aloy on to an insane degree. Every drop of slick on her hand, every whimper from Rey, the feeling of her lover’s cunt clenching tight to her questing fingers, it takes her closer. Rey feels for her free hand and grabs it, their fingers lacing together.

They’re entwined, lost in each other’s lust. Both of them trembling, both of them with fingers curling inside the other.

Aloy feels a little whine escape her throat, and then she comes apart.

“Doesn’t that feel good, Aloy?” coos Rey, grinning wickedly. “So wet, I love it… oh Force, here it comes,” she suddenly whimpers, as the delight in her eyes changes to something startled. “Oh _fuck_ I’m coming for you too…”

They subside into one another and drift off to sleep in a tangle of long limbs, fingers twined together.

They could spend all the next day making love here – and they do take another tryst in the pool – but Aloy should really get back to the Matriarchs and make it clear that the stranger is no threat to her people. And Rey, happily enough, is more than willing to go with her.

“I’ve been thinking,” she says as she pulls on her breeches.

“Fuck, Rey,” Aloy laughs. “I didn’t think I’d given you time for thinking.”

“You nearly didn’t,” Rey retorts, putting her arm around Aloy’s waist and pulling her close to kiss her cheek. “But I did manage a little bit of thinking and realised… the Galaxy may well come to this world one day even if your people aren’t looking up. Might be worth…” she tails off.

“Might be worth what? You want to warn them?”

“Warn might not be the right word.” Rey frowns. “Just… spread some knowledge. It’s not just an excuse to see more of your planet, though if you can show me, then I’d count that as a bonus.”

Aloy regards her thoughtfully. “You’re choosing an adventure, aren’t you?” She sees Rey’s worried look and pats her shoulder in a way she hopes is reassuring. “No, I like the idea. I’d love to take you all over – and not just that way!”

Rey giggles too. “So where first?”

Aloy grins broadly at her. “Home.”

They descend quickly, jogging downhill with their momentum and Rey pulling ahead.

Seeing the forested terrain below, Aloy calls to her. “Hold up Rey! Don’t wanna go careering into a machine.”

Rey comes to a halt as Aloy skids the rest of the way down to her.

“You’ll have to teach me that move,” Rey smiles. Her eyes linger on the bow in Aloy’s hand. “Do you expect trouble?”

“Well, not exactly expecting, but you get Sawteeth and Scrappers round here so – wait.” She pauses to listen. “You hear that?”

Rey nods, her eyes wide and her teeth bared. “Screaming.”

“Now we run.”

They race for a kilometre through the woods, vaulting over rocks and fallen trees, coming to a halt a little way below a rocky ledge.

“Hold up!” Aloy tells Rey, getting into cover at the edge of the trees.

Rey looks out from behind their rock and grimaces. “So these are Scrappers?”

Six Scrappers, all told. All firing up at the ledge, answered by terrified screams. The machines must have been going at it for some time, judging by the black marks on the rock. She makes out flashes of blue. Nora hunters, at least two.

“Use the Focus I gave you,” Aloy says quietly. “See the weak points?”

Rey pulls her hand away from her ear and the device clipped to it. “Yes.”

“Good. Scrappers are tricky, so it’s best to hit those points and hit them hard. And fast, before they can hurt those hunters.”

“I’ll get in close,” Rey says, her face etched with concern. “Any pointers?”

“Wait for the explosions before you attack,” Aloy replies.

A confused expression greets her words. “I beg your-”

Aloy nocks a shock arrow. “I’m opening the box of tricks. Now go.”

Quickly but quietly, Rey sets off, while Aloy picks her targets.

The benefit of coming upon the Scrappers like this is that their backs are turned, so it’s child’s play for her arrows to strike two power cells before the machines even know they’re being attacked.

There are angry barks, a sudden fizzing and crackling, and then two bright blue explosions of electricity. Aloy’s selected her targets for maximum splash damage, so Rey finds all the remaining Scrappers wounded as she approaches, lightsaber in hand.

None of the surviving machines’ aggression has been sapped by the ambush. They come at the Jedi full of fury, and immediately Rey becomes a blur of movement and yellow light, fending off their attacks, dodging them so they leap clean past her.

It’s a terrifying spectacle for Aloy, the grinding jaws and lashing claws only a hand’s breadth from Rey’s body. Even with her borrowed armour, a hit could hurt her badly.

Luckily, Rey’s picked up on Aloy’s example already. When the last of the attacking Scrappers gets close enough she sways aside, striking at its power cell before she propels herself clear and runs.

The wounded Scrapper turns, finds Rey with its red lens of an eye, and gives her what somehow looks like a deeply sad look. Then it blows up.

That leaves three. One of the Scrappers readies its laser sweep, but Rey’s ready. Aloy just catches the slight movement of Rey’s head towards the machine on her left. She somehow gets the sense that Rey’s smiling. But she focuses on her part, nocking an arrow, trusting Rey to get this right. The laser leaps, meets Rey’s lightsaber and is reflected at the other Scrapper, cutting it in two.

Two left now. Aloy’s arrow flies and strikes the first, a freeze arrow that leaves its movements slow and its armour brittle. Rey seizes on the chance, racing in and sliding past, cleaving it deep with her saber.

No time to celebrate. The other Scrapper comes from the side, prompting Rey to dive away and only letting her land a shallow cut on its side. Aloy’s eyes are on this one, and she catches its radar to make the machine seize up.

Rey doesn’t hesitate to behead the Scrapper, but its wounded fellow has come back with startling speed and the Jedi is sent into retreat. Aloy, though, is already on the move, firing off another arrow that stops the beast in its tracks. As it collapses, she pulls her spear from its holster.

Rey is already moving, but this kill won’t be hers. Aloy plants a foot on the downed machine, plunges her spear down, and finishes the fight.

The sudden silence is deafening.

“What happened to me stabbing, you shooting?” Rey asks, grinning from ear to ear.

Aloy grabs her with her free arm and kisses her. “I don’t believe we ever decided on that. And besides,” she winks, “you’ve gotta be adaptable when hunting machines.” Then she raises her voice. “Alright up there?”

“Yes, thank you!” comes the reply. Then come a trio of young Nora, scrambling down to gawp at the two women and the destroyed machines around them.

They only take a moment to realise who she is, and bow their heads. Fortunately for them, it means they don’t see the exasperated look on Aloy’s face, and the amusement on Rey’s.

One of them, a young lad with a wispy attempt at a beard, manages to get the title out: “Seeker?”

“At your service.” Aloy looks them over. “Training for the Proving? A little far out for that, I think.”

The boy looks chastened already. “We’d heard the stories about your training, how you did it all out in the wilds…”

Ah, so she’s become a bad influence now. Aloy raises a reproachful eyebrow. “I had a teacher for that. And I was older than any of you before I first took on a Scrapper.” She looks the trio over. “Here’s your lesson; don’t go where there’s a fight that you can’t be sure of finishing. We need to make future Braves, not lose them. You hear?”

Mutterings of “Yes, Seeker” answer her. And, a little after that: “Who’s she?”

Of course, Nora will know an outsider no matter her garb. Aloy turns to Rey, who comes forward and introduces herself by name, though not origin. “I’m Aloy’s…”

“Companion.” Aloy slips an arm around her waist. “Rey’s my companion. Now, we ought to get you kids home. Maybe I can teach you a few things on the way. But first,” she says, crouching down by one of the downed machines, “how’s your looting?”


	7. A Hell of a View

They see the kids back to Mother’s Crown, fielding questions about what Aloy’s been up to lately. The tale of the Ripclaw takes up a fair portion of the journey, and it’s repeated when they arrive at the town.

At length, however, the youths are handed back to their parents with an exhortation to take care of themselves, and a promise from Aloy to receive the village’s hospitality before she moves on.

In one important regard, the Nora are unlike any people Rey has met. She wonders if she should call it ignorance, which seems tactless, or innocent, which feels wrong.

She settles on “isolated”. They are isolated, so much so that they don't even _imagine_ Rey being from another world. Another tribe, far away, is one thing - younglings ask if she is Oseram or Kajra, and one old man thinks he'd heard of a Jedd Tribe far to the balmy south.

There's not much hope of getting away from the questions; the whole village is feasting before the youths depart for Mother's Heart and the Proving. The drink flows and loosens tongues, and the outlander who accompanies the Seeker is magnet for questions.

The most outlandish queries stretch to whether she came over the Great Water from east or west. It would explain her peculiar accent, several Nora cautiously remark. A less cautious one growls that she sounds rather like Shadow Carja.

With Aloy's help, Rey pretty much keeps her own counsel (though the Shadow Carja allegation is sharply refuted by Aloy). She refrains from outright lying, without really giving anything away about where she came from. Dropping the bomb of truth on one woman who, by her own admission, never much cared for Nora tradition and knows much more about Horizon than most, is a much smaller proposition than doing it to a whole village.

In the same way, the Force is not once mentioned. She's enjoying just being an interesting outsider, whom everyone wants to thank with food for helping to save their young hunters.

And she has her own curiosity to assuage.

“Your lands,” she asks Karst, a cheerful merchant. “Aloy says the Shadow Carja ravaged them just a couple of years ago, but the damage hardly shows. How is that?”

“All-Mother’s bounty.” A broad smile creases Karst’s shaggy face. “But surely you’ve seen that in your lands, the way the machines work the land?”

“There aren’t many machines where I’m from,” Rey cautiously replies.

“Well,” Karst says, clearly warming to his topic. “By the Goddess’s grace, machines recycle rubble into dirt, burned wood into mulch and so on.”

“Terraforming,” Aloy whispers in Rey’s ear.

“Grazers, Striders and others work over a tract of land and leave it good as new.”

“Impressive,” Rey says earnestly. “You’ve got clearly a bounty here and then some. Our hunting was a bit surplus," she murmurs to Aloy, who's halfway through a rack of ribs. Their journey’s built up a thorough appetite.

“Don’t knock it.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Rey replies, reaching for a corn cob. “This is great stuff.” And indeed, she takes a good couple of bites before she speaks again. “So, do you think we might go and attend the Proving?"

Aloy nods. "I think so. It's only two days off. I don't want to cause offence by refusing, and I've only ever competed. Be interesting to watch."

"It'd do the kids some good too, to know the Seeker's looking out for them. They are your tribe, after all."

"Takes some remembering." That comes out as a sigh, and Aloy looks mournful. "Strange, you long to be part of something and by the time you've got it, you're so used to prowling alone that you have to remind yourself there's a place for you. But," she says, squeezing Rey's hand, "you know that. Actually, would you come to my old home and Rost's grave tomorrow? It’s… always a little difficult to go back."

“How so?” Rey keeps her voice low and gentle.

“If I’m out in the wilds, I can almost kid myself that he’s just off in exile, like he said he’d be. But every time I go to the grave, it’s undeniable again.”

A single tear creeps down Aloy’s cheek, and Rey instinctively wipes it away. “I’ll be there, Aloy. Of course I will.”

Aloy leans over and rests her head on Rey’s shoulder. “Thank you.” After a pause she adds, “You know I meant you’re more than just a companion to me, right?”

“It comes through,” Rey says. “Your actions speak good and loud.” Aloy blushes at that, and Rey also sees the tenderness which flickers for a moment in her eyes.

Rey finds Aloy’s mood brighter the next day, as they take the long route towards Mother’s Heart. In the late afternoon they draw within side, passing through a gate into the Embrace, and Rey gazes upon Aloy's home. Unmoving tendrils of metal coil among the mountains on the horizon, across the plains and hills. Parts of some huge, long-dead machine. Older than this world’s second life, she realises with a start.

Aloy’s told her what she learned about the Faro Plague and Zero Dawn. Maybe that’s why the Force, if it ever touched this planet, has almost no purchase on its inhabitants now. With all life fashioned from whole cloth, inheriting only language and the remains of a civilisation from their ancients, maybe there’s a distance between them and it.

The Seeker has more immediate things on her mind, though, as the sun drops lower. “Up there,” she says, pointing. “That’s where they hold the Proving. That’s where they want me to head tomorrow to watch.”

“Can I come and see it too?” Rey asks, trying to gauge her chances. The Nora are clearly protective of their rites.

Aloy bites her lip. “Let me get the Matriarchs’ views first, but I want you there to see it. They are a bit more open-minded nowadays, so-”

“Hold on!” Rey says, hushed and urgent. Something’s booming, some way off. “What are those noises?”

A little smile quirk’s Aloy’s lip. “Ah, now that is…”

Then the machine hoves into view, and Rey needs no explanation at all. It towers over everything around it, its great disc of a head sat atop a long, long neck.

Rey realises her mouth is hanging wide open.

“You hadn’t seen a Tallneck yet, had you?” Aloy says with just a tiny hint of smugness, but her eyes are alight with wonder as well.

Rey can only shake her head, feeling a grin seize hold of her face. “I’ve seen a lot of things out in space, Aloy, but that’s one of the most startling.”

She’s seen bigger things too, yet that doesn’t diminish the sight of the Tallneck. Perhaps it’s just how much larger the machine is than everything around it. Nothing can crowd it out here and diminish its majesty. And there’s a strange stateliness to the way it moves. Unhurried and untroubled.

“And if you think it’s impressive from here,” Aloy says, brazenly cutting across Rey’s thoughts. “Just wait until you see the view from the top.”

Rey takes a moment to blink at her and refocus. “You mean we can climb one of those?”

“Sure. They’re not hostile like other machines. In fact, they don’t even notice us.”

“Right.” Rey eyes the smooth metal of its legs. “So, are we looking for high ground first?”

“Yeah. We can use the ruins.” Aloy’s already off, and Rey chases after as she darts up a sloping girder and leaps onto a platform. She grins and points. “Go the next one along!”

Rey takes up her position and watches, mouth agape, as Aloy takes her run-up and leaps. The jump carries her straight onto the flat blade of its shoulder. She skips across to the opposite and beckons eagerly to Rey.

“You’re mad.”

Aloy’s smile only shines more brightly at that. “C’mon!” Rey sighs, takes her own run-up and leaps.

She doesn’t throw herself quite as far as Aloy. For a moment she’s suspended in midair, before her hands clamp onto the edge of the metal and she hauls herself up onto it. Her heartbeat booms in her ears, and she knows she’s grinning as broadly as Aloy now.

There’s a momentary wobble and a “Whoah.” The lurch and thump of the Tallneck’s movements takes a bit of getting used to.

Aloy beams as Rey hops over to her, lending an arm to help her gain her balance. “Up we go,” she beams, and begins clambering up the neck of the machine.

Once Rey commits, the old scavenger instincts (and the potent lure of Aloy’s arse a little way above her) see her up the neck, following Aloy’s holds to the great disc of the machine’s head. The Seeker’s feet disappear upwards, but a moment later she’s reaching down to grasp Rey’s wrist and help her up.

“Behold!”

Rey can’t help but laugh in disbelief and elation. The Tallneck has strode free of the ruins, and she can see great swathes of the landscape, bathed in the glow of the now setting sun. Herds of machines gather in the distance, hunters trek across the lands, and rivers running down from the mountains cut through the grasslands. It’s the kind of thing she dreamed of seeing as a child on Jakku. Even now, after all the worlds she’s been to, it’s astonishing, and they both sit down to savour it properly.

Rey turns to embrace Aloy, beaming as she leans in and they kiss. “Thank you Aloy. Now,” she adds after an appropriate interlude, “are we rappelling down?”

“That is how it’s done.” Aloy winks. “But with a view like this, it pays to take it slow.”

“No argument there.” So Rey hooks her line to the brim of the Tallneck’s head, tests it and clasps Aloy’s waist with one arm, as the huntress puts both hers around Rey’s shoulders. Those vivid green eyes, full of trust, sooth her nerves.

Together they take a breath, say “Three, two, one, hop” and with that they’re descending smoothly, both gazing blissfully out over the vista as Rey’s firm grip on the rope (and a little judicious use of the Force) sees them safely down to earth.

It’s so breathtaking, ludicrous and yet quite real, that Rey finds herself laughing delightedly as they slip down.

“Be ready to move!” Aloy’s voice snaps her out of her reverie, and they quickly slip to the side upon landing, working the cable loose with a hard flick.

Rey doesn’t quite manage any more words for a minute or so, until they gain the ridge and start along the road to Aloy’s former home. “That alone made it worth coming to this world, as if you hadn’t already.”

Artwork by [the brilliant](https://www.deviantart.com/maggierosestudio) [MaggieRose](https://maggierosestudio.tumblr.com/)


	8. Catching Up

The flowers and other plants have grown right over the old hut, with only Rost’s grave remaining clear. Though it does need some care, and Aloy crouches down to cut away a few stray shoots and remove fallen leaves and petals.

“Is this… alright?” Rey hesitantly asks, unsure what the right words would be as she crouches down beside Aloy. The sombre mood has come back to Aloy on their hike uphill.

Aloy can feel the tears in her eyes when she turns to face Rey, but she’s still smiling. “Yes. It’s what Rost would’ve wanted, if I wasn’t going to keep living here. Let the wilds take back what we borrowed from them.”

“It’s a lovely spot they’ve made for him.”

Aloy turns back to the grave, but she can’t quite bring herself to speak yet.

“I’ll…” Rey comes close and pauses, her lips brushing Aloy’s neck. “Leave you to it for a moment.” She gives her hand a little squeeze before she pulls away.

Aloy smiles and nods, and kneels down by the grave.

She waits until Rey’s footsteps have faded from hearing before she speaks. Out of habit and caution, she sets her Focus down on the stone. She hasn’t heard from Sylens since she ventured into GAIA Prime. She has no idea where he’s gotten to since the battle against Hades, and maybe he isn’t even listening any more. But she doesn’t like the idea of a ghost intruding on her most private moments.

Enough thinking about Sylens, though. She speaks to the stone and the guardian who lies beneath.

“Hey Rost. Been a while. I’ve been busy, though I didn’t have much new to tell you til lately. Just travelling, mostly, handling little jobs. You should see the old bandit forts we’ve taken back – they’re growing into proper villages. People living, loving, all of it. Just like your family, back before… all this.”

Rost would be happy to see that, she thinks.

“It’s strange now, to travel knowing that you did too, but that our journeys were so different. I like to think that in some way, you’ll see what I see.” Hearing Rey talk about the Force and ghosts has given her hope on that front. “I still wish that we’d got to do any amount of this together. To actually adventure together. To witness new things and marvel at them, not just see a new danger. Not, of course, that there aren’t dangers. Rumours from abroad. New machines too, some of them dangerous.”

Pausing for a moment, she gathers her thoughts.

“Actually, I fought a Ripclaw yesterday. Not sure you ever mentioned encountering one of those, but I won’t forget facing it. Quite the challenge, like you crossed a Thunderjaw with a Sawtooth, and with an attitude to match. But we took it down.” She catches herself and winces. “Crap. _We_. Should’ve talked about that sooner. Rost, I’ve… _met_ someone.”

She frowns. _Met_ doesn’t seem to encapsulate almost any of what’s happened with Rey, but it doesn’t seem right to say “we fought some machines and she healed me with magic, then we fucked in a hot spring, and now I think I’m falling in love with her despite only knowing her for about a week.” Equally, she doesn’t quite trust herself to use the word “love” out loud yet.

“She’s called Rey, of the Jedi. I think you’d like her. An outsider, but in a way that’s a lot like us – though she didn’t have someone like you to raise her, sadly. She should be strange to me, and in some ways she is. She’s… not of this world. She goes by the name Skywalker, and it’s quite literal for her. She’s gone up among the stars, been to other planets and seen things I can’t even imagine. She can do things no one I’ve ever met can do. And yet, I feel like I’ve known her all my life.”

She laughs a little. “Just listen to me. Here I am saying that I just found out people live on other planets, all these things that you’d have chastened me for saying as a child. Even crazier than what I found in the mountain. But maybe you know that. Are you there, in the Force? Rey thinks you might be. And about Rey…”

Confession time. “I… _like_ her, Rost, though I don’t know how long she’ll be with me. And that kinda scares me, because she makes me feel things no one else ever has, or at least not half as strong. I just want to have her with me, and show her as much of this world as I can. It’s a risk, but I’m used to that now. I just… hope you approve.”

A little way off, Rey has just made a similar confession. The hologram of Finn flickers in front of her, her friend standing with his arms folded and raising a quizzical eyebrow.

“That seems a little sudden, Rey.”

Rey bristles a bit. “Anything would seem sudden to you with your romantic history, Finn. I mean, how long did it take for you and Poe to admit that you were head over heels for one another? Did you or didn’t you date Jannah before you realised? Sorry, and actually,” she catches herself, feeling a little regret for her hard words, “how is she?”

“Oh, she’s doing good. Actually she started seeing Rose.”

“Truly?” Rey smiles. “That’s good. I mean I don’t know either of them as well as I should, but that’s good. And how are you and Poe doing?”

Finn smiles. “Oh, busy busy. Galas every weekend, which make up for all the meetings. And I’m making headway with training. Luke’s been helpful.”

Rey and Finn had just about figured out communing with the spirits of old Jedi masters before she went away. That solved a large part of the no-teachers problem.

“That’s good,” Rey murmurs.

“Still, we’re going to need both of us around if we’re going to start teaching. When are we coming to get you?”

“Shit, Finn, I just got here. I wanted a month at least. The First Order falling apart and everything was a miracle, and I want to enjoy it.”

Finn’s frown is very pronounced now. “I’m just not sure it’s the best thing to get hung up on a girl from a planet where no one’s ever seen a spaceship, you know?”

“She’s the first woman I’ve been into who wasn’t overawed by me,” Rey protests. She paces in the snow, gesturing frustratedly. “It’s different for you and Poe. You were co-generals and all that, you’d been friends for years. I’ve needed so much to have someone look at me and not just see Skywalker.”

“Be that as it may, and however cute she is, you know the Galaxy will get in the way of it sooner or later. We have a duty, Rey.”

“I know.” It feels really, really crap to be kicking against this, like a petulant teenager. But after a literal death and everything else on Exegol, Rey’s prepared to fight. She’s given her life for the Galaxy once already. Let her have this. “Give me a year. A year to the day when I touched down. Please?”

“Poe won’t be happy.”

She retorts without thinking. “Oh, fuck Poe.”

Finn grins devilishly. “That might be part of persuading him, if you need me to get involved.”

“That’s not what I meant! And I know, before you say, that I need to give him a second chance.” Rey sighs. Neither she nor Poe had been at their best on those missions, and had spent most of their time arguing. Ironic, after Poe had spent so long pushing for her to come along. “But seriously, those are my terms. I’d just like a year of my life that’s mine.”

“A holiday?”

“An escape.” Rey makes a conciliatory gesture. “Just a year. Think you can manage that long without me?”

“Well, I’ll miss you,” and Finn’s sincere tone makes it plain.

“Same here.”

“But you’re right, you deserve it, and I hope it works. Still, send a holocard when you get the chance, and take care, Rey.”

“You too, Finn. My love to Beebeeate and the others.”

“Course. Bye, Rey.”

She manages to match his smile. "Until we meet again."

The imagine collapses back into the projector, which Rey calls into her hand and stows. Then she hears a twig break and whirls to find Aloy approaching.

“He reminds me of my friend Varl,” she says, cautiously holding up her hands a little. “Sorry to eavesdrop. Is everything alright?”

“Yes.” Rey sighs. “Things got a bit strained around the time of Exegol. And I know that that was my grandfather needling at us, trying to drive us all apart, but it still made things difficult and there’s a lot that takes work to move past. I’m hoping, when I’m… done here…” though she says those two words uncomfortably. “Things will be easier.”

“Well, for now,” Aloy smiles, taking hold of her hand. “There’s a Proving to watch. Let’s go introduce you properly to my people.”

They don’t make love that night, upon arriving in Mother’s Heart. Their part in the festivities is short too, though the mood in town is exuberant. The road has been long, and their mood is just a little too sombre. But Aloy does get a confirmation from one of the Matriarchs, a kindly woman called Teersa, that Rey will be allowed to watch the Proving.

Then they make their weary way to bed. So Rey just spoons with Aloy, curling up around her under the blankets and toying idly with her braids.

“It’s a lovely place, though to be clear, you’re still the most beautiful thing I’ve seen on this world, Aloy.”

“And I’m wondering just what they feed you up in the stars, to make you that sweet.” Aloy shakes her head a little. “It’s funny. I grew up being told that the big mountain up yonder was our goddess, and with such a little world. I’ve never left this continent. Yet after meeting you and sharing this time with you, the idea of a whole Galaxy out there… somehow it doesn’t seem too crazy.”

Rey kisses her cheek. “If we ever get you up in space, that might change.”

“Probably will. But being with you feels _right_ , despite how different our worlds are. Does it feel that way for you too?”

“You know it.” Rey feels the drowsiness setting in properly, and manages to get one more sentence out. “Having you with me feels more right than anything I’ve known, Aloy.”


	9. A Run, a Rumpus and a Romp

The early morning’s peace is broken by the bustle of people, lots of people, outside. It wakes Rey into half an hour of grogginess, only partially alleviated by sticking her face in a bowl of icy water.

After pulling her base layers on, she finds Aloy applying blue warpaint to her face in angular lines. “Gotta make an effort,” she grins. “Normally I don’t bother, but I figure if we’re in on a custom like this…”

“I’m into it,” Rey tells her. “It’s a bold look.” She looks over the gear Aloy’s set out. “Wrapping up warm for the mountains?”

“You bet. The wind up there is like a razor. So for you, I’ve got some Nora Survivor wear. Warmer than the Protector garb, and besides, there’s not much up there which should need armour.”

Rey pulls it on. “Mm hmm. Cosy. Honestly, I’m enjoying getting to wear different outfits. The Resistance couldn’t spare much.”

“And it looks good on you,” Aloy says with a wink, knowing that Rey could probably wear a sack and look great. She holsters her bow and moves to the door. “C’mon. Time to put it to use.”

They step out into a throng of young Nora and the Braves who’ll oversee their Proving. Everyone’s carrying a bow, spear and ropes. To Aloy’s profound relief, Resh isn’t in charge on this one (it seems he’s been posted to the resettled Mother’s Vigil, and is probably grinding his teeth at being surrounded by former Outcasts). Aloy looks to see who’s leading.

As it happens, the answer comes to her. “Aloy!” Varl comes striding up, holstering his spear and grinning broadly. “So I did hear right - you came back for the Proving.” As he hugs her, his eyes find Rey. “And you brought… company. Hail. My name’s Varl. Lieutenant to the War Chief and today, looking after the future Braves.”

“Good to meet you.” Rey leans over to Aloy. “He is like Finn. Well spotted.”

“Who?” Varl asks.

“A friend of mine,” Rey smiles. “A brave warrior and good companion. From what Aloy’s said, very much like you. But I’ve fumbled introducing myself. I’m Rey.”

Varl dips his head. “My thanks. And it’s good to put a name to the outsider who’s been making ripples in our land.” He’s still a little stiff around outlanders, Aloy notes.

Rey is sensitive to that, and hits all the right notes. “If I’d known how your people feel about intruders I’d have been less brazen, believe me.”

“Ah, no harm done,” Varl shrugs. “If anything, a fair bit of harm averted. I hear you two ran down a Ripclaw the other day.”

“Something along those lines,” Aloy says in a neutral voice.

Varl gives a knowing smile at her tone, but doesn’t pry. “Well, however you brought it down, that’s one machine which could’ve been a real menace. Now it won’t hurt anyone, thanks to you two. And there are three contestants at the Proving here who might not have made it if not for your intervention with the Scrappers. Goddess willing, we’ll owe you for some Braves today.”

“Well,” Rey smiles. “I’m happy to be of help, and you know Aloy always is.”

“Just as well, because that saves me pleading for today. We could use some extra lookouts on the course, just in case of a rogue machine or avalanche. Upside is, that gets you a front-row seat. If you’ll just follow me,” he says, gesturing with a thumb over his shoulder. “The runners are almost ready.”

They start moving, Aloy quizzing Varl about how things are going with Fia, a healer who must be his girlfriend. “Mate,” Rey reminds herself, thinking of how the Nora phrase it.

“Going strong. We’re going to wed in the summer.”

“Have you set a date? I’ll try to make it, but you know how promises like that can pan out for me.”

Rey knows the Aloy is trying to hide a pang that both of them feel. Neither of them has talked about an end point to Rey’s stay. Even though, courtesy of the conversation with Finn, it’s on both their minds.

Well, keep that thought for later, Rey thinks. They’ve come to the climb to the grounds, and it’s a steep one. In some ways Rey finds it not unlike the Star Destroyers and such which she used to scour on Jakku, only with the hazards of ice, snow and rock rather than sandblasted and baked metal.

Still, following Aloy, Varl and the other Braves, she can handle it.

“I had wondered about that before the fight yesterday,” Aloy says as they gain the ridge, and Rey turns to help a young Nora up – one of the youths they saved from the Scrappers.

“Pardon?” she says. Then she adds to the lad, “Good climbing. Now take a moment and catch your breath.”

“You’d talked about being jaded about having to look after people.” Aloy lends a hand to one of the last aspirants up the climb. “But you’ll still choose to do it if you see someone in trouble.” She squeezes Rey’s hand, and the other woman reciprocates. “Glad to know I was right about you, Rey.”

Varl has moved off, looking down the pass on the far side of the mountain. Now he turns back and calls, “Ready yourselves!”

Aloy guides Rey off to the side as the Nora youth pick out their positions and pick out arrows. A faint rumble is audible now, and more than one of the kids look distinctly nervy.

“Grazers?” Aloy asks Varl, bow held loosely in her hand.

He shakes his head. “Chargers. Kimek!” he calls to one lad, stood on the trail. “Stand to the side.”

Kimek leaps sideways, and not a moment too soon. A herd of ramlike beasts comes thundering up the pass, into a hail of arrows which drop a few of the first rank. Most of them plough on past the Nora, but a few wheel to attack, lashing out with metal hooves and butting with their curled horns.

That’s the real test for the aspirants, as they have to steer clear of the belligerent machines and bring them down. Wisely, they stay back and let fly with their bows, wearing down the Chargers. Only when a machine falls does anyone go in with their spear, and even then the final blow is even struck from afar.

“Wait,” Aloy calls to one of the hunters they rescued two days ago. The girl is backing away from an angry Charger. Aloy herself has an arrow nocked, but doesn’t fire yet. She will only intervene as a last resort. “Aim for where the horns join to the head. Find the mark and… _fire!_ ”

The girl’s arrow strikes the weak spot – and the machine drops, the horn breaking off on impact with the ground. Rey whoops, blushing self-consciously when Aloy shoots her a look.

The young woman grabs the horn and holds it up, her trophy secured.

“Good work.” Varl thumps the base of his spear on the rock and points to the climbing trail. “Now to the Brave Run!”

The Run passes without incident as far as Rey, watching from afar, can tell. No serious injuries beyond a couple of broken bones, and those aren’t enough to keep the aspirants from finishing the course and crossing the finish line, though they’ll need help back home.

A youth, a former Outcast, wins and for his boon, requests to join the garrison somewhere called “Mother’s Shield.”

“They used to call it the Hollow Fort,” Aloy tells Rey as they watch the new Braves slip down the zipwire to ground level. “Bandits held it until I cleared the place out a couple of years ago, and it became a refuge for Outcasts. When they were allowed back into the fold, lots of them chose to stick around there and build it up. That lad, Krerl, he was a kid there. I remember seeing him.”

Rey frowns. “But wouldn’t rebuilding there mean contact between Tribe members and Outcasts? I thought the Nora frowned on that.”

A smile lights Varl’s face. “I see you’ve picked up a bit of history from Aloy, but history is what it’s becoming. Nora minds are changing faster than they ever have - something about a former Outcast saving the world,” he winks at Aloy.

“That’s exactly the change I like to hear about,” Aloy says. “Along with no one throwing fruit at Rey – ask Erend about that when we go to Meridian,” she adds to Rey.

“Only after the festivities, I trust?” asks Varl.

Aloy laughs. “But of course.”

Aloy is struck by the fact that, with the massacre at her own Proving, she never got to enjoy the celebrations which come the other side of the rite. Now she gets to enjoy them herself. The new Braves and their escort are welcomed back with cheers and the beating of drums. Not to mention a hearty banquet, prepared on skewers or griddled over wood fires, and plenty of drink.

“How’s your tolerance?” she asks Rey halfway through their first pints. She’s very conscious that she’s beginning to feel it.

“ _Pfft_.” Rey giggles. “Bloody lightweight here. Desert kids without much money don’t get much boozing in.”

“Same here. The wilds didn’t really make drinking a regular thing. So I guess we’re both a cheap date.”

“My favourite kind.” Rey mirrors her smile. “Well, let’s get started. What’s good here?”

Aloy picks out a couple of drinks over the next hour for them, heavy on foraged berries. They’re feeling pleasantly loose before too long, which is when the sun dips below the mountains and the dancing begins in earnest.

The two women join in, and Rey loses herself in the abandon and merriment. It’s a joyous dance, driven by the busy rhythms of the drumming, and the Nora wheeling and bounding in their finery is a sight to behold. When these people throw off their reserve, Rey thinks, they do so with aplomb.

Though she guesses that’s perfect for a spring festival, as the land comes out of hibernation.

When they step away to get another refreshment, one of the Matriarchs approaches. “Might our visitor contribute a dance? A song? Something of her culture, perhaps.”

Aloy forgets sometimes how much more welcoming the Nora have become since her own Proving. Just for an outsider to be welcome in the festivities used to be notable.

Rey exchanges a nervous look with her. “My people didn’t have time for dancing, but I’ve learned some in my travels. There’s one from Kashyyk…” She hurries on before anyone can ask where in the world Kashyyk is. “It’s not the most intricate, but I think it might work.”

She taps out a bouncy rhythm on the drums, enunciating along with them. “A-bada-badum, a-bada-bada-dum _hoo!_ A-bada-badum, a-bada-bada-dum _ha!_ ” She colours. “Like I say, it’s not massively sophisticated, but I’m sure your players will have an idea or two to spice it up.”

One of the drummers has his eyebrows quite high, but he gives the priestess a deferential look. “We can certainly try it.”

“It’s a hit!” Aloy hoots in Rey’s ear, hardly able to make herself heard over the noise.

The assembled Nora – the youths and those who should probably know better – gallivant around the space, stomping and half-crouching for the hoos and the ha’s. Rey and Aloy do just that at the centre, bounding more gleefully than anyone else at the dance.

This is just Aloy’s kind of music; jubilant, kinetic and without any traditional cues for her to miss or fumble. It’s actually new to everyone.

The shouts are loud enough to shake snow loose from the buildings around them.

The primal stomp gives way to something a little more traditionally Nora, as the musicians make the piece a bit busier.

Now the simple moves give over to something more elaborate, though just as kinetic. Pairs form, beginning to spin and leap. Rey and Aloy are no exception, gleefully swapping places.

Finally, as things build to a crescendo and youthful spirits do exactly what youthful spirits will when told to let loose, Aloy catches Rey in a lift and holds her, hands tight on her hips as Rey’s palms rest on her shoulders.

“I want you to myself now,” she breathes, knowing she’s a little drunk but not caring in the slightest. “I wanna ravish you.”

“You want a romp?” Rey grins down at her.

“A romp sounds good!” Aloy hoists Rey over her shoulder, making her whoop and hoot with laughter, and carries her to her hut, away from the astonished eyes of the Nora youth.

Rey’s laughter only stops when her mouth fastens on Aloy’s breast, and gives way to moans when Aloy’s hand slips down her breeches. The party outside doesn’t sound like it’ll abate any time soon, and Rey and Aloy feel much the same way.

Aloy steers her lover across the room, leaving a trail of their garments from the door to her bed. She half pushes, half throws Rey onto it, clambering on to the bed to lie beside her. Rey clearly isn’t about to argue with her ardour, and eagerly spreads her legs.

“You’re such a wanton little thing, Rey.” Aloy strokes along Rey’s thigh, teasingly close to the dark curls and the pinkness at her centre.

“Like you’d want me to be anything else,” Rey whispers, cupping Aloy’s chin to kiss her. But she breaks off with a moan when Aloy puts her fingertips to her sex. Those folds are wet to the touch, and all the more as Aloy starts to stroke.

Aloy smiles at the pleading little moan which her attentions earn. “Too right. I like getting you off,” she says, and kisses her guest again, stroking Rey’s cheek. “Just lay back, Rey. Let me spoil you.”

There’s plenty in it for her too, to be sure. From here she can admire Rey from head to toe, watch her taut belly flutter as her fingers slip in and out of her lover’s slit.

“On my clit too, Aloy,” the brunette moans.

As Rey’s arousal grows, Aloy slips her fingers deeper in and places the tip of her thumb on her lover’s clit, suppressing a giggle when Rey’s breath hitches. Back and forth she goes over the nub, eliciting a low moan and a plaintive look in Rey’s eyes. Aloy can’t see that kind of naked need on her face without leaning in to kiss her, embracing her more closely.

There’s a novel thrill in how easy it is to find the things that get Rey hot, how small she can make the movements and still have Rey becoming delightfully wet.

Rey’s hands move too, as she begins to touch herself, squeezing her breasts and delicately pinching her nipples. Aloy sees it and grins.

“Yeah, Rey. Play with yourself for me. Actually,” she adds, moving her free hand to one breast. “Press on your mound just a little. I’ve got your boob covered.” That gets a giggle from Rey, but she does as Aloy asks and sighs with heightened pleasure.

“Oh Force, that feels good.”

“Intensifies it, huh?” Aloy feels a glow of satisfaction at the look on Rey’s face. It feels good to indulge. Rey’s pleasure is like the sun to her, especially with the smile which emerges from her startled look, and accompanies each twitch and whimper.

She moves quickly now, and soon Rey matches her urgency, hips bucking rapidly as she fucks herself on Aloy’s fingers. She’s shaking all over, her breasts jiggling while little cries spill from her throat.

“Don’t stop… need… _coming!_ ” Rey blurts, the only words she can get out. Her head tips back and she climaxes with sharp, staccato cries, slumping into Aloy’s strong arms.

In the morning she’ll hope that the noise of the festival drowned them out. For now, she laughs delightedly, all the more when she realises Rey’s giggling too. She flops back onto the sheets, taking Rey with her.

“Is Nora hospitality always this good?” Rey teases.

“The Nora didn’t teach me that,” Aloy laughs, nuzzling her. “This is your special Seeker service.”

“Well, special services must be repaid.” A wicked light has ignited in Rey’s eyes, something more than the glow of the fire.

She rolls over to end up underneath Aloy, kissing her breasts and running her tongue around the nipples. “Straddle me like you did when we sparred, Aloy. You know you want it.”

Aloy lets out a husky breath, kneeling up and setting herself over Rey’s chest.

“This is what you imagined when you touched yourself, wasn’t it?” Rey says, between featherlight kisses to her thighs.

“Yes,” Aloy whimpers.

“Me under you, at your mercy, ravishing you?” Rey plants a wet kiss right on Aloy’s opening, her tongue quickly swiping up along the slit.

To actually see it, to see her folds part for that insistent tongue, does something really powerful to Aloy. A shudder of pleasure seizes her, and her reply comes out almost as a sob. “Yes!”

Rey don’t waste any more time with words. Her tongue blankets Aloy’s clit, a light but insistent pressure. She adds two fingers, slipping them into Aloy and licking around them, while with her other hand she caresses Aloy’s thigh and squeezes her butt.

A longing whimper escapes Aloy when Rey quirks her fingers, stirring up a fresh whirl of pleasure inside her. She can feel wetness on Rey’s hand, against her inner thigh.

Aloy bites down on her thumb to stifle her cry, whimpering out her climax. Or at least, her first climax.

Rey’s intent on giving her more. She pulls her fingers away and buries her tongue in Aloy’s sopping wet cunt, greedily drinking in her pleasure. Aloy lets out a shuddering breath. With one hand she clutches her breast, the other tangles in Rey’s hair. She’d be pulling her closer if it weren’t for the fact that Rey’s eagerness already has her as close as she can get, both her hands now dimpling Aloy’s buttocks with a firm grip.

Those beautiful, deep brown eyes fix on hers, and Aloy feels the intensity like heat. Rey’s fucking her as much with that gaze as her mouth and fingers, and both of them know it.

Aloy responds, bucking and thrusting, and now Rey’s using her jaw, driving her lips and tongue against her cunt. It overwhelms Aloy completely. She buckles, slumping forward. She sees slick spill from her sex, into Rey’s eager, miraculous mouth. And then she’s gone totally boneless and finds herself slumping sideways onto the bed.

“Whoah, Aloy.” Rey crawls over. Her lips still glisten from pleasuring Aloy, though there’s a concerned look in her eyes. “You good?”

“I just came,” Aloy pants, “all over your face. You tell me.” Rey snorts, before they both dissolve into giggles and kiss gleefully. And once again, Aloy gives thanks that the woman from the stars happened to land on her little patch of this planet.

“So,” she says later, sitting up with Rey’s head in her lap, stroking her long brown hair and sighing as Rey kisses her freckled thigh. “What do you call that? Fucking? Lovemaking?”

Rey pauses, thinking. “Bonking.”

Aloy suppresses a snort. “ _Bonking?_ Bonking sounds kind of innocent for you putting your fingers up me.”

“Oh, I think of it more as just fun, uncomplicated…”

“So, a romp?”

“Exactly,” beams Rey, contriving to look even more kittenish than usual. “That’s what I think of as bonking.”

“Hmm,” Aloy grunts sleepily. Then she tries out the word again. “Bonking. I think I like it.”

Rey smiles smugly. “I _know_ you do.”


	10. Something to Seek

The threatened rain has come and is drumming heavily on the rooftops. Aloy takes this as a sign to spend the morning indoors if she can help it. There are plenty of very worthwhile things to do inside, after all, in the warm and dry.

She’s teasing Rey, planting kisses along her spine, when an urgent rapping sounds at the door. Aloy growls her frustration before she gets up, pulling a gown on as she goes and hastily tying it.

“Yeah? Oh, morning Teb.”

“Good morning, Aloy.” Teb bashfully averts his gaze for a moment, catches sight of Rey under the sheet instead and finally, with a heroic effort, manages respectful eye contact with Aloy and nothing more. “I’m sorry to, err, interrupt.”

“It’s alright, Teb. You wouldn’t knock this early in the morning without a reason.”

Teb nods ruefully. The stitcher’s discomfort is clear; his whole skinny frame seems to radiate awkwardness right now. “A reason from the Matriarchs. They’d like to speak with you as soon as you’re able. All the way over in Mother’s Watch, I’m afraid.”

Well, that makes sense. If anyone’s going to interrupt the Seeker’s most intimate moments, it’s the Matriarchs. She conceals her annoyance, though – mustn’t shoot the messenger, and Teb himself has struggled out of bed to bring the missive to her. “Thanks Teb. Tell them we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Do we have to?” comes the predictable, only partly put-on whine from Rey when the door closes. Truth be told, Aloy is tempted to put it off. Particularly when Rey slips out from under the sheet, perfectly naked, standing and stretching.

But duty is duty. “The fact that you’re out of bed says you know we do,” Aloy tells her, moving to her wardrobe. “I’ll make it up to you later. Besides, you might just be about to see something no outsider has in centuries.”

A soggy walk brings them to Mother’s Watch, in the shadow of the Great Mountain, and then the temple entrance and Matriarch Teersa.

Save for a few people, the settlement is quiet, the inhabitants sensibly staying out of the rain which now shrouds the place and steals the mountain from sight. Of course, a lot of them are in Mother's Heart instead, cosy and dry.

“Not even nine in the morning,” Aloy grumbles. “And I’m headed for squishy boots.”

“We need to introduce your people to the wonders of waterproof material,” Rey tells her. She’s wearing a garment of strange, plasticky material over her clothes, and Aloy has to admit, she’s quite jealous. Her clothing can resist the rain, but can’t keep it all out. The water just runs off Rey's, however, like off a goose or duck's plumage.

Teersa is sensibly stood beneath the overhanging entrance, and beckons them forward. “Aloy, thank you for attending so quickly. And Rey – it is Rey, I understand? Good morning, and welcome to Mother’s Watch.”

The two young women bow their heads in respect.

“You’re welcome.” Aloy indicates Rey. “I trust my companion won’t have to wait outside?”

“When the Mountain itself answers to you, I could hardly object.” Teersa’s eyes alight on the Jedi. “Though I must impress upon you, Rey, the honour which Aloy does you in this. Until the Eclipse besieged us, the caverns were closed even to most Nora.”

Rey puts her hand on her heart and inclines her head. “Then I am very conscious indeed, Matriarch, and deeply honoured. The Jedi have always been cautious about who gets to see inside their temples too.” She cocks a thumb at the sky. “And I’m glad to be out of the weather.”

They head into the wood-panelled halls which the Nora erected in the caverns. Aloy finds it strange to enter now, knowing how much bigger the complex is on the other side of the door. But today isn’t the day for venturing there. Certainly not before she knows why they’ve been summoned from their bed.

“I’m told,” Teersa begins, “that you two fought and slew a Ripclaw just a few days ago.”

“You’ve been told right,” Aloy says.

Teersa grimaces. “A fearsome machine indeed. Not that I haven’t seen you contend with a Thunderjaw on our very doorstep.”

Aloy waves off the praise. “This would only be the first such monster to breach our borders since the Eclipse attack.”

“Actually…” Teersa’s tone has Rey and Aloy exchanging a worried glance. “That was the third in truth.” She sets off into the passages. “Come.”

As they follow her through the passages – Teersa is a surprisingly brisk walker for her age – Rey leans over to whisper in Aloy’s ear. “Are the Matriarchs always so cryptic?”

Aloy nods. “Goes with the territory, I think.”

Two men in Brave garb are waiting in the shadows by an archway, and come forward to kneel when Teersa approaches. As they come into the light, Aloy recognises them both. One is dark-skinned and broad-shouldered, the other slimmer and with fair hair. They’ve learned Aloy’s reputation, and quickly stand once it’s appropriate.

“Ah,” Aloy smiles. “Den and Dran. How are you both?”

“Hale and hearty,” smiles Dran, the older and more grizzled of the two. The scars from the Eclipse ambush still show on his face.

Den’s reply is a little more subdued. “Staying alive, by the grace of the Goddess.”

Aloy suppresses an impatient response to that. “I trust she’s still watching over Ferl and Muns?”

“Oh yes,” says Den. “They’re in town, but I left them to their sleep. Dran and I can make the report ourselves.”

“You all came together?”

“We linked up along the way,” Dran replies. “Turned out we were bringing more or less the same news.”

Rey’s hung back until now, but at this point she speaks up. “About new machines? Black and red armour?”

They both look sharply at her, but Rey stands her ground. Teersa clears her throat, drawing their eyes instead before any inadvisable words can be spoken. “Men, this is Rey. She is, as you can see, an outsider, but she has been travelling with Aloy and the Seeker vouches for her. She is welcome here. So please, answer her.”

There’s a certain kind of steel, Aloy thinks, which you only find in an old woman in a position of power. No challenge is issued to her command.

Den gives Aloy a look, clearly remembering what she said about not putting much stock in Nora traditions. “Aye, we’ve seen new machines. New and aggressive.” His face is grave. “A Ripclaw came upon our camp and we had to put it down. Hell of a battle. Lucky that we were all fresh, and that it was as noisy as it was.”

“The Ripclaw is quite a thing to face,” Aloy agrees.

Dran interjects. “Well, it’s not just Ripclaws we have to worry about now. Ever heard of a Hellmouth?” Rey and Aloy shake their heads. “Picture a boar as a machine, only it’s the size of a Strider or Charger and has a mouth that’d put a Scrapper to shame.”

“Sounds _delightful_ ,” Rey mutters, her tone mirroring what Aloy feels. “You took on one of those?”

“Two. A group of three attacked the Two-Teeth holdfast in Valleymeet. I was nearby with a few others and hastened to the fighting. The carnage…” He grimaces, twisting his scars into grislier shapes than before. “Those jaws make red ruin of anyone they fasten on. When I arrived, one Hellmouth had fallen for the loss of four Braves. We put paid to the beasts, and I hastened for Mother’s Watch.”

Aloy quickly joins the dots. “The machines came from the northwest, then. Carja territory?”

"Aye,” Den confirms. “What’s more, we've had word from Oseram traders. Other machines have been encountered in the last month. They've only been a rumour in these parts before, and the idea of them appearing in numbers…"

"That's not going to sit well with anyone," Aloy finishes for her. Then she turns to Teersa. “So you need someone to go into the Sundom, possibly beyond, and find out where these things are coming from.”

Teersa inclines her head. “I would ask another, not least as you just carried out a task from us. Alas, we lack anyone with your connections to the Carja.”

Aloy feels irritation tug at her cheek. “We might not, had Sona deigned to even speak with Marad or Erend.” The War Chief has always been a staunch traditionalist, and even facing the horrors of the Eclipse’s machine army wasn’t enough to make her warm to outsiders. “But I accept your request.” She turns to Rey. “Will you join me?”

“Certainly,” Rey smiles. “It’s by your word that I’m not trespassing after all. Besides, you’re company’s well worth facing a machine or two.”

Aloy doesn’t trouble to hide her own gladness. “And I suppose the Sundom will be more your kind of climate?”

Rey’s eyes flick towards the entrance, and the rain which is still falling hard. She nods and makes a equivocal face. “That too.”

Aloy is quiet on the walk back to her home, and when they’re in she goes straight to a little room at the back of the hut, that Rey hadn’t noticed before. Turns out she’s got an armoury in there.

“We ought to get you properly geared up,” she tells Rey as she rifles through her little store of weapons. “Obviously your lightsaber is deadlier than any spear, but as you figured with the Ripclaw, it’s not a great idea to limit yourself to melee. And there are machines which are more dangerous at range. You haven’t seen a Thunderjaw or Ravager yet.”

Rey, who’s piloted spaceships, fired blasters on a regular basis and forged a lightsaber, finds herself unaccountably thrilled at the thought of taking up a Nora weapon. “So I get a bow?”

“You’ll need more than just that. I’m giving you a bow, a selection of arrows, a sling with a few kinds of bombs and a Tripcaster to boot. Actually…” She darts back into the armoury.

When she returns, Rey thinks she feels a glimmer of recognition. “You’ve got a blaster?”

“I don’t know about a blaster. This here is a Rattler.”

“So, solid shot?” A bit more primitive than she’d thought, then. What with the advanced weapons on the machines, she’d got hopeful about the tribes using those themselves.

“ _Sharp_ solid shot.” Aloy hands Rey the empty weapon, watching her study it and not the chamber in which shards of metal go. “Mostly it’s for dealing with human attackers, but you could put shock and freeze pellets in there too if you’re tackling machines.” She pauses. “Rey? You’re frowning.”

Rey finds herself eyeing the Rattler in her hands with a new wariness. “You mentioned fighting people.”

“Is that a problem? Because there _are_ tribes out there which eat people. And sacrifice them. Also just bandits, but you know.”

Despite herself, Rey smirks. “Cannibals do tend to focus the mind.” Then she sighs and sits down on the bed, resting the Rattler on her knee. “No, I can deal with fighting people. I just hate doing it.”

Aloy takes a gentle hold of her wrist. “Then that makes two of us, Rey. I’m hoping it isn’t necessary. But c’mon, let’s try you out with your new gear.”

After a couple of hours at the practice ground, for Aloy to be sure Rey’s got the basics down, much of their first three days are a series of hunts along the road north, in which Aloy tests her understanding of different ammunition types.

So far, it’s promising. Several Watchers, shot through the lens, are proof enough of her keen aim. Shock and freeze arrows she’s good with, and a run-in with some Scrappers on the second day gave Rey a good chance to try both the Tripcaster and sling.

“Now,” Aloy says as they hunker down beneath a small ridge at the edge of Nora territory, deep in the long grass. “How do you propose we get through this one?”

She doesn’t really need to indicate the Sawtooth as the machine she’s talking about. It’s not as massive as the Ripclaw was, but it’s fairly imposing and menacing in its own right. Its movements are predatory almost to the point of caricature. All that is before one gets to the throb of its engine, not all that far from an uneasy heartbeat.

OK, she has to look past that now and find some weaknesses.

Her eyes fix on the blaze cannisters along the bigger machine’s body. Burning those could do some damage, but there’s a fair bit of armour there. Then she considers the Grazers and the similar components on their backs. Those are exposed, and clustered together. She senses a little blush of pride at that from Aloy, who’s following her eyes.

“We can improvise bombs from the blaze cylinders on those Grazers,” Rey says. “I’m guessing if one goes up, those around it will probably catch. So if I take out one, and you get another…” she looks sharply at Aloy. “But will that do to the Sawtooth?”

Aloy gives her an approving look. “You _are_ a fast learner. Probably won’t take it out, but that will take a strip or two off it.”

“Soften it up nicely,” Rey breathes. She pulls a fire arrow from her quiver. “Shall we get started?”

“One more thing first.” Aloy holds up her tripcaster. “Hold still here.”

So Rey grits her teeth while Aloy slips away, creeping forward to rig an electric tripwire across the path. She doesn’t come close to relaxing until Aloy’s back in the long grass. “So we’re ready?”

“If you are, yeah.”

They light and nock arrows, each taking careful aim and waiting for the Sawtooth to get close to the Grazers.

“Now!” hisses Aloy, and they loose, each striking a blaze cylinder and setting it alight. The Sawtooth wheels, its eyes immediately flashing red as the Grazers twist and make to run.

They don’t get very far, though. Blowing up rather interferes with that. The Sawtooth catches a good blast on both sides, staggering before it charges, wreathed in flames, down the track towards Rey and Aloy.

It’s so pissed off that it doesn’t spy the shock wire, and it comes to a sudden halt as electricity crackles over its side. Rey doesn’t hesitate to pour more arrows into it, barely hearing Aloy’s shout to pull back.

And then she realises why, because the Sawtooth starts moving again and leaps. Oh Force, it covers ground in a hurry.

Rey quickly retreats. She peppers its flanks with fire arrows, but there’s nothing left to catch light and the shock effect’s worn off. The Sawtooth comes at her and she leaps away, rolling when she lands only for it to lash out at her with its claws. She has to halt it with the Force, and then lurch back when it snaps at her.

It’s still coming. Shit, it hasn’t even slowed.

Rey tenses, ready to fire…

An arrow from Aloy strikes a blocky component on the Sawtooth’s back and tears it away. The machine collapses with a mechanical wheeze. Rey seizes her chance. She leaps onto its side, igniting her saber, reversing it – and stabbing down.

She only relents when the Sawtooth’s spasms have stopped. When it does, she turns to Aloy with a quizzical expression.

“Hardpoint arrow to its power cell,” Aloy tells Rey breezily. “Don’t get fixate entirely on elemental weaknesses. Took me a while to get to grips with that myself.”

“Noted,” Rey says. Then she adds, “And I should’ve been more careful. It took more punishment than I thought it would.”

“Any machine can kill a hunter,” Aloy says. “If she’s careless.”

Rey dips her head, feeling suitably chastened. “A Nora saying?”

“One of Rost’s.”

“Then I see what Rost meant. Well, mucking up is how we get better, if we come through in one piece,” she says pensively. “Loot the machines and press on?”

“Yup. Let’s get to it.”


	11. Dreams and Spires

They overnight at Suntower, a Carja fort and small settlement a few hours’ hike along the road from the pass. Rey doesn’t get much of a look at the place. Tired from the road, they greet the captain who runs the place and grab themselves a room at the inn, where they quickly fall asleep. But in the predawn…

“ _Bastard. Bastard!_ ”

The whispered words jerk Rey from her sleep, and she sits bolt upright at the noise that follows. As her eyes adjust, she sees something which makes her gasp faintly.

Aloy is sat at the end of the bed, weeping softly.

Rey immediately crawls over. "Aloy? Aloy - hey, _hey_. What’s wrong?”

Aloy gulps in air as Rey puts her arms around her. “A dream, memory really.”

A nightmare, Rey suspects. “Hades? Helis?”

“Faro.” Aloy lets her head rest on Rey’s shoulder, and Rey strokes her hair. 

She recognises the name from Aloy’s stories. “The man who destroyed the old world?”

Aloy nods, tears shining on her face in the faint light. “He did more than that. He had a parting shot, one I learned about from an old recording. The gift that Elizabet Sobeck and her people left for is, the ancients' knowledge which would empower us to rebuild… and he erased it. Wiped it out like a footprint in the snow." She screws up her face. “There was a holo of it. I saw it play out, right in front of me but where I could do nothing to fix it. Watching the people who’d pledged themselves into building a better world to come after be murdered. Powerless.”

Rey stares at her in shock. "Why? Why would anyone do that? Even Faro?"

"To "protect" us.” Aloy looks as incredulous as Rey feels. “The same man who doomed the whole world, the one who caused the Plague, decided that knowledge was corruption. He thought that if the humans born from Zero Dawn were ignorant, they'd be innocent." Those words come out laced with bitter humour.

Anger flares in Rey’s own breast, but she hides it, not wanting to show Aloy anything but tenderness right now. “Maybe he did it to make sure that history wouldn’t know it was his fault. Though at least he failed there, thanks to you.”

Aloy sighs. “I guess.” She turns pained, tearful eyes on Rey. “Because of Faro, people who should’ve been beyond his reach die because of a hard winter. Because of his wish to make us “innocent”, priests in the Carja Sundom ripped out the hearts of Nora prisoners and offered their blood to the sun. Because of him, men saw the machines which destroyed life on Horizon once and called them gods.”

Rey starts to coax the other woman back into bed, still just listening to her words.

Aloy’s tears are flowing again. “Every time, in the dream, I get close, thinking this time I’ll salvage something. And every time, I see the people working to build the future murdered, even after Elizabet sacrificed herself, and the future gutted with them. It’s not _fair_.” The tears return, and she buries her face in Rey’s chest.

Rey holds her, rocking gently back and forth. “You’re right, Aloy. It’s not fair. But that man’s weakness isn’t something you should be cutting yourself up over. You’ve made this world a better place. You were doing that before anyone so much as asked you for help.”

Aloy’s weeping seems to subside a little, but Rey holds her still. With the Force, she surrounds Aloy, filling the air with a soothing presence.

“Right now, Aloy, the present needs looking after. We’re going to find who or what’s threatening your people, and put a stop to it. Once we’ve done that, we can worry about the future, eh?”

Aloy raises her head, and to Rey’s relief, the tears have dried up. “So this is wise Jedi Rey, I guess. And that… what am I feeling?”

“This is the Force, Aloy,” Rey murmurs. “This is peace. Just lie down and let it take you. Sleep.”

“Thank you.” At last, Aloy drops off, and Rey curls up next to her and does the same.

Aloy awakens with her mood vastly improved, and a sense of clarity and purpose which the Faro dreams normally steal from her. She’s newly grateful to have Rey at her side.

It helps that she has a few things she needs to do. They’re about to quit the mountain terrain for the baking hot conditions of the eastern Sundom, and Nora clothing will be more trouble than it’s worth down there.

“Rey!” she calls. “Come here when you’re clean, I’ve got some desert gear for you.”

"New get-up?" Rey calls from the washroom. When she steps out, clad only in a towel, she catches sight of Aloy and does a double take. "Wow, Aloy!"

Aloy follows Rey's eyes to her toned midriff, left bare by the outfit. "Ha, I thought you'd like it. Wanna see yours?"

“You’ve got one for me?” Rey is almost bouncing up and down with excitement. “Hell yeah.”

Rey's desert garb is something Aloy has assembled from some of her spares, a merge of Nora and Carja items with a few embellishments from Rey's pack.

"The hood and cape are a nice touch," Rey comments when she's got it all on. “Good freedom of movement too,” she adds, swivelling her hips and rolling her shoulders, dropping into a semi crouch and pumping her arms in a feinted flurry of punches. "Though you do realise you've given us a problem, both wearing these?"

"What problem would that be?"

Rey grins mischievously. "The difficulty of keeping our hands off one another.” Her arms encircle Aloy’s waist. “We're going to have to do it _extravagantly_ when we reach Meridian."

"Well don't you worry," Aloy laughs, grabbing the bow she's picked out for Rey. "I can call in a favour from the Sun King. Would the royal bathhouse be extravagant enough for you?"

“I’d hardly say no. And with the weather being this hot, I think we’ll need it.”

The Sacred Land will always be the place Aloy feels most at home, but there is something to be said for the Sundom’s baking hot sun. Rey, the child of a desert world, is clearly in her element, wearing her hair loose and letting it stream behind her as they ride Chargers along the dry stone roads.

A handful of Carja and Oseram outlanders and soldiers pass them by at a couple of points. She greets them fleetingly with a nod or a raised hand, or a shout in response to the soldiers, who recognise her as a heroine of Meridia. But those too are fleeting, and she presses on.

Rey’s quite happy to press on, clearly enjoying how, moving at speed and clad in native gear, no one takes her for an outsider.

She only halts upon seeing a Thunderjaw in the distance, bringing her steed to a halt as she gawps at the colossal machine. Aloy, for her part, has to tear her eyes away from her lover to the machine, not without a little glance back at her toned and tanned stomach.

The Thunderjaw is high up on a ridge, well out of their way.

“I can see why Thunderjaws are so infamous,” Rey murmurs, looking apprehensively at the weapons mounted on its gleaming flanks. “I’ve seen starships less heavily armed.” The Focus Aloy gave her (taken from the store beneath the Mother’s Mountain) is alight with a ring of blue. Aloy feels a little bit at pride in seeing Rey start to make proper use of the device, enough to swallow her question about starships. “I do hope you’re not planning to go out of our way for that.”

Aloy cocks an eyebrow at her. “I’m not that hungry for another fight. Besides, the Hunters Lodge goes after Thunderjaws pretty often. There’s probably some Hawk and their Thrush stalking that one as we speak.” She glances again at the Machine. “Hopefully a few Hawks, actually.”

Ordinarily, she might at least go to scout it, but she has her task already.

“They’re welcome to it,” Rey says with feeling. “Also, I suppose we have got somewhere to be,” she adds, echoing Aloy’s thoughts.

“Oh yeah,” Aloy replies, nudging her steed into a canter. “And just wait until you see that _where._ ” They leave the titan behind.

Meridian is certainly a change of speed from the Nora lands and even Suntower. So many people of different origins gather in the city, that Rey barely merits a second look from anyone.

It’s a different story with Aloy, saviour of the city twice over, friend to the king and Hawk of the Hunter’s Lodge. The guards at the entrance recognise her, and by the time she and Rey have crossed the bridges which take them into the city proper, there’s a small crowd gathered at the gates.

“Know the feeling?” she says out of the corner of her mouth, seeing Rey’s slightly resigned look.

“Yep. Just gotta smile our way through it.” There’s a slight and slightly guilty smile on Rey’s face, at not being the centre of such attention for once.

“True enough.”

As it happens though, after just a few moments a deep, gruff voice cuts through the chatter of the crowd.

“Aloy!” This booming voice must be Erend’s, and the owner is pretty much as Rey had pictured him. A big, burly man clad in burnished armour and with a big hammer slung over one shoulder, he easily parts the crowd and enfolds Aloy in an enormous hug that lifts her clean off her feet.

“Hello Erend,” Aloy chuckles. “How’ve you been, old comrade?”

“Oh, as busy as you’d expect,” Erend smiles, releasing her. “Though I’m drinking less.”

She glances dawn as his stomach. “It shows.” Even with his armour on, he isn’t quite as broad as he once was.

“Ah, thanks.”

“I trust the women of Meridian have been appreciative?”

“Since when did you joke so bawdily?” Erend’s eyes pan sideways and find Rey. “Ah, and now I think I might see the reason. Excuse me, but am I looking at…”

“Aloy’s girlfriend?” Rey smiles over Aloy’s shoulder, hands resting lightly on her hips. “Yes, yes you are.”

“Rey,” Aloy says, gesturing. “Meet Erend, captain of the Oseram Vanguard and a great friend of mine. Erend, this is Rey who is, indeed, my girlfriend.”

“Well, this is a profound relief to my ego, believe me,” he winks. “There I was thinking my charms had failed, and it turns out you were impervious to any man all along.”

“You flatter yourself, Erend,” Aloy joshes him.

“Hey, someone has to!”

She gives him a look. “You’re telling me no one else will flatter the Captain of the Oseram Vanguard, hero of the Spire.”

“From my experience, if people are talking about _the_ hero of the spire, they tend to mean you…”

Rey watches, amused, as the two friends bicker amiably and catch up on recent events. As far as Rey can tell, what that’s meant on the Carja end has been rebuilding their city and reclaiming some of their lands from the machines’ encroachments. At a guess, Hades’ attack on Meridian had swept up a lot of the machines in the surrounding forests, and those had been dashed to bits on the defences.

That’s as far as her thoughts get, for Aloy and Erend get to business. “Was this just you coming to say hello, Erend? Or does Avad want something with me?”

Erend smiles, but with just a tinge of regret. “I wish we were just having you to dinner again, Aloy, but I’m afraid you’re in demand. The Sun-King was on the verge of sending out messengers to seek you when the word came from Suntower last night. Then again, it looks like you’re here on business nonetheless.”

Aloy looks just a little tired. “We are indeed. We’ve had incursions by machines new to Nora lands. Enough to concern the Matriarchs, and Meridian seemed like the obvious place to seek information.”

Rey frowns at Erend. “But if you were about to send people looking for Aloy…”

“We share those concerns.” Erend turns, beckoning them to follow. Rey glances at Aloy, and gets a nod, so follow they do, nearly trotting to catch up with Erend’s strides.

As they near the bridge to the Sun-King’s palace, Aloy hesitates, glancing towards a grand building in the next district. The Hunter’s Lodge, Rey guesses.

“I should seek out Talanah,” Aloy says to the Oseram captain.

“Actually, she’s at the Palace too, with old Ligan. And Vanasha, your spy friend. Avad called upon them earlier today. In your absence, there was no one better to speak on strange machines.”

“Well, that simplifies things.” The two women keep following.

“So, officially girlfriends I guess,” Rey says softly. “If we are going with that?”

“Gladly.” Aloy takes her hand and squeezes. “Sorry I let someone else say it first.”

“Right back at you, but it’s the being girlfriends that really matters.” Then Rey catches sight of the palace. “Oh wow. I’ve seen more ornate palaces, but that’s probably the loveliest.” Only Theed Palace, out of those she’s been to, was as artfully formed as this.

“More ornate?” Erend raises an eyebrow. “Where’s more ornate than this?”

Rey feels a moment’s panic and quickly says, “Honestly, I don’t expect you’d have heard of them. Even Aloy hadn’t.”

“Then I guess I can’t feel too bad for that. Gets very easy to think that Meridian’s the great wonder of the modern world. When we Oseram and Carja have outsiders give an opinion, it’s normally Nora tutting at us for building too big.”

Aloy nods in response to Rey’s quizzical look. “You should hear Sona. She grizzles about “inviting the fate of the ancients” and all that, the second someone adds a second floor.” She seems entirely unfazed by the hustle and bustle of the city, and Rey begins to appreciate just how atypical she is for the Nora. This is the woman who chafed so fiercely against the constraints of her adopted tribe.

And as if on cue, there comes another call from across the bridge. “Aloy, despite the Nora!” The speaker is a patrician-looking woman, who Rey would guess at being in her thirties, maybe late thirties. She’s garbed in silver and bronze armour scales – or maybe they’re closer to feathers. Beneath that, her clothes are dyed aquamarine and rich brown, chased with dark gold. Still, it’s easy to discern an athletic poise and assurance in the woman’s movements, and her physique is similarly honed to Aloy’s. A hunter for certain.

If the woman’s appearance and bearing weren’t enough of a clue, Aloy’s broad smile and deferential dip of the head would immediately clue her in on who this is. “Hello Talanah, it’s been much too long.”

“Been missing our hunts while you were away up north, Aloy?” the woman smiles.

“Oh indeed. Much warmer here, for starters. Though the hunting was plentiful, and challenging. But I found another good hunting partner with me on the way back.” Aloy turns a little towards Rey. “Rey, meet Talanah Khane Padish, Sunhawk and my former sponsor in the Hunters Lodge. Talanah, this is Rey.”

“Charmed,” purrs Talanah. “Very exotic, for all the Carja garb – but I see you wear the hunter’s gear well. Has Aloy been passing on some of my tricks?”

“A few,” Rey replies with a smile, “and one or two of her own.”

“Oh, I would never try to take credit for Aloy’s prowess. Though I’m proud that I found even a little to teach her.”

“I’ve had some stories about your exploits, believe me. And it sounds like your king wants us to go and pull off a few more.”

“You’d be right,” Erend puts in. “And I’d appreciate it if you don’t keep him waiting any longer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cuz I knew I needed Rey in Blazon gear too ;)


	12. The Sun-King's Request

Some things never change in Meridian; there’s still a lengthy procession of petitioners past whom Erend leads Aloy and Rey. At least now that Aloy’s the “saviour of the city” no one’s giving her dirty looks or protesting at preferential treatment of a Nora savage, of all people.

She savours the view, just a little guiltily. The Sun-King hasn’t yet managed to downsize as he’d like to, and she’s never been entirely comfortable with how tiny the people in the districts below look, from up here.

Rey seems less fazed – of course she is, Aloy chides herself. Rey says she’s been aboard vessels which make this city look tiny in comparison, though at least she still appreciates the beauty of Meridian. To Aloy’s dismay, the Nora who fought with her here had largely failed to do so, deeming it strange or even aberrant.

She puts those thoughts out of her mind for now. It’s time to be courteous and diplomatic, all those things which don’t come quite so easily to Aloy.

Avad is on his feet, leaning on the balcony and gazing out over his city, when his visitors approach. Ligan is stood close by with Blameless Marad, the royal vizier, a handful of courtiers, and a woman dressed in black and purple.

She is the first to approach, slinking over to greet Aloy. “Why Little Huntress, looks like you’ve found another.”

Introductions are quickly made, though Vanasha’s flirting is surprisingly restrained. The mood seems… overcast, Aloy thinks.

Avad turns to the newcomers, and a smile breaks out from behind his grave expression. “Ah, Aloy. Welcome back. And this would be Rey, yes?” Rey smiles and bows. “Charmed. Can we offer you wine? Water?”

“Water will be fine,” Rey smiles.

“Though if you’ve any fruit,” Aloy says, “I’d be very grateful. It’s been a dusty road here.” Not to mention that she does relish the fruits of the Sundom. Nothing that grows in the Sacred Land is half as sweet as a nectarine or orange from the groves beneath Meridian.

A plate is promptly produced as Avad begins talking. “Thank you all for attending. You all know why your presence has been requested. However, it’s likely that you’re not aware of the full scope of the danger.”

“How big can the scope be?” Talanah frowns. “New machines are new machines, wherever they come from. We catalogue them, we learn their weaknesses and we keep them in check. We’ve already been fortifying the Jewel and the estates.”

"But not enough for one settlement," Marad says. "We've had a machine attack at the southern tip of the Jewel."

"It came out of nowhere," Erend reports grimly. His usual cheer is nowhere to be seen. "Some kind of variant Thunderjaw. A few of my guys have already taken to calling it the Flamefang."

"So you're saying it burns. And it came from the south." Aloy feels the colour leave her cheeks. Even Avad and Marad look pale right now. "Erend, what happened?"

"Noon Kiln, formerly Blackwing Snag." The guard captain's face is ashen, and he looks down at his feet when he sees Aloy wince.

"No," she breathes and turns away, moving to the balcony. Her chest feels tight, the threat of tears prickling at her eyes.

Rey follows, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Aloy, what's Noon Kiln? A village?"

Aloy swallows. "One of the bandit camps I turned over, and people settled it again." She looks desperately at Avad and his advisors. "How many got out?"

Marad sighs heavily. "Thirty-eight."

"Out of how many?" Rey asks trepidatiously.

"A little over a hundred, we think." The Blameless looks even more troubled by what he’s about to say. “Witnesses say that the Flamefang attacked like nothing we’ve seen except for Hades’ assaults. It began by setting fire to the stockades, then rained down volleys on the people when they emerged from their homes.”

“Tactical thinking,” Erend pronounces gravely. “It wasn’t alone either. When the people fled, Hellmouths came out of the dark and savaged them. Dozens of people didn’t even make it out the settlement.”

“Holy…” For a moment, the wind goes out of Aloy, and she sags against the wall. Another massacre, she thinks. Committed against a settlement she had liberated herself, no less. That is the worst part, she thinks – the lands she’d already fought so hard to save are under threat again.

In a way, it’s even worse than finding the Nora lands ravaged by Helis’ armies. At least then, she arrived in time to prevent her people being destroyed. No such reprieve for the inhabitants of Noon Kiln.

“Hey,” Rey says to her. “You alright?”

Acutely aware of her vulnerability, Aloy hardens her expression. “I will be, when we find the cause of this and put a stop to it.” She looks to the king and his advisor. “Do we have an idea of where they’re coming from?”

“Some way to the south,” Marad says. “East of Tenakth territory, we can say that for sure. I would say that constitutes some small relief, that this isn’t the monsters’ doing.” There’s a general muttering of agreement that he acknowledges with a small gesture. The Tenakth, infamous as reavers and rumoured to be cannibals, are feared and despised by all. “Beyond that… we know little. Those are obscure and dangerous lands, even where the Tenakth do not hold sway.”

“We’ll head out there.” Rey’s voice is firm and her eyes are hard as glass. More than that, resolve radiates off the Jedi in waves, just like when she comforted Aloy last night. “We’ll scope around, see what we can find and work out a way to stop these new machines. Right, Aloy?”

Aloy nods. “Yeah. We’ll do it.”

“And I’ll be with you,” Talanah adds. Aloy and Rey look at the older woman and she smiles wryly at them. “You think I’d pass up new quarry?”

“Same here,” adds Vanasha. “A chance to cut off a new threat before it can grow seems good, given how close we came with Hades.” She pauses, a frown darkening her bright eyes. “We don’t think this is Hades again, do we?

Aloy shakes her head. “Doesn’t seem so. Hades’ corruption always had a very clear tell, those red and black tendrils.”

“Might it be the influence of the daemon you faced in the Cut?” Marad asks. When she turns to him in surprise, he says “There was talk from some recent Banuk arrivals and Carja caravans, which naturally reached my ears. It seemed like something the Sun-King’s vizier ought to be aware of.”

Aloy concedes with a nod, but doesn’t let herself get sidetracked. “The daemon’s influence was also very clear to the eye. These machines hardly look any different except for being new kinds.”

“Was the Ripclaw new?” Rey asks. Of course, she wouldn’t know.

“First one was only seen this winter.” And every single one, Aloy recalls, was reported as savagely attacking people until it was destroyed.

Marad inclines his head, stroking his short grey beard. “It’s just taken us this long to see them as the same threat.”

Aloy looks to Avad, lifting her chin assertively. “Now we do see it, best we tackle it now.”

Avad nods gravely. “I will provide you with an escort, and you have the pick of the royal armoury. The moment you send word, we’ll have a force ready to march in support.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Though I would just like to check something with Rey.” Aloy beckons Rey to step away from the group, walking until she’s sure the rest of out of earshot. “Are you sure you want to do this?” she probes. “You didn’t come here to get mixed up in our problems.”

“I want to help, Aloy. And wanting to help again… it feels good.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Aloy says, feeling a little skip of her heart. “Having you around is a real boost, believe me. Particularly as we’re headed well away from home now.”

A mix of emotions, a nervous hopefulness, shows on Rey’s face. “You mean that?”

"Truly.” Aloy stops for a moment, looking out at the fields below the city. “You know what you said about needing to not be Rey Skywalker? I feel the same. The Nora called me Outcast and No-Mother, and then they turned right around and called me Anointed. Even a friend like Varl looked at me and saw the Goddess' purpose overlaying the woman. To everyone else… I mean almost everyone else, I'm defined by being Nora. By being something which, in a big way, I'm not."

Rey’s arms snake around her torso, their armour clinking together faintly. "Fuck 'em," she growls protectively in Aloy’s ear. "To me you're Aloy, and that's all I want."

Her words stir a tremor of emotion in Aloy’s chest, and she lays a hand over Rey’s. "Thanks, Rey. With you, I'm not something interesting or scary or to be revered.”

“Hmm. I think you’re _very_ interesting.”

“I was thinking a different kind of interesting. Like I was a curiosity. And that… gets old.”

“Ah, that kind.” Rey’s expression certainly says that she knows the feeling, as if Aloy wasn’t aware already. “In that case, it makes a heap of sense to want to get away. And maybe this is a good way to do it. I want to help you, Aloy, and I want to be with you.” Rey gives her that gentle but irresistible smile. “In whatever way I can.”

They turn back to the others, who eye them expectantly. “No change, I hope?” Avad ventures.

Aloy smiles and draws herself up. “No change. We’re both committed.” None of the men trouble to hide their relief at that, which she finds she appreciates.

“Then we should set out tomorrow morning,” Vanasha says. “I’m sure we’ll all want to arm ourselves properly and rest up.”

“So I see you’ve got yourself a Thrush,” Talanah tells Aloy a bit later, as they cross the bridge back to the city. Rey’s a few paces behind, talking with Erend and getting the story about Dervahl.

“Hmm?”

“Rey.” Talanah wears a mildly surprised expression. “You mean you hadn’t suggested it?” She shakes her head. “Shocking, Aloy. She’s plenty of potential.”

Aloy puts her head on one. “To be honest, sponsoring her hadn’t really crossed my mind, and wouldn’t that look a bit like nepotism?”

“You mean that you’re-” Talanah grins when Aloy can’t hide her blush. “ _Aha_ , I wondered if you were. You’ve got good taste.”

“It’s not just that,” Aloy protests. “She’s brave, kind and smart. Working through a few issues of her own, but we fit well together.”

“I’m only hearing more reasons for us to welcome her.”

“Well as I said, I imagine that might look a little nepotistic.”

Talanah shrugs. “No more than went on under Ahsis. You’re free to sponsor her, and if she brings back some trophies – particularly of some new and exciting machines – no one will be able to contest it.” She raises an eyebrow and grins. “Don’t get me wrong, I admire your principles, but the whole Lodge knows you’re honourable. If Rey proves herself, she’ll be accepted too. So let’s not hold her back pre-emptively.”

Aloy smiles. “Then that might be something to raise with her. Perhaps we can all talk it over on the journey south tomorrow?

“I imagine so. For the moment I’ll let you go, though. This might be your last night under a roof for a while, better enjoy it.”


	13. Indulgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title doesn't lie, this one is pure smut before Rey and Aloy start their mission...

Avad put a comfortable apartment aside for Aloy after the great battle, despite her protestations that she doesn’t come to Meridian enough to make it worthwhile. Refusing the Sun-King’s offer of employment, and possibly rather more than that, doesn’t seem to have cost her his favour in the slightest. She actually had to talk him down from a stately home. Now, she’s told Rey, she has plenty of cause to be grateful, not least its big bed.

Right now though, Rey’s mostly appreciating the bath house, while Aloy attends to a matter or two in the marketplace. Stocking up on arrows and materials, and selling off some of their leftover loot.

Baths in themselves are still a novelty to Rey, whose wash routines have tended to either be wipe-based (water being at such a premium on Jakku) or a brisk shower on a Resistance base.

The royal bath house feels like someone's trying to make up for her lost time, and Rey wouldn't dream of objecting. Everything is marble and artfully placed vases of flowers, and painted frescoes cover the ceiling. Scented candles perfume the air, and cast low, warm light across the water.

Dropping her towel, Rey steps into the water. It's glorious, just the right level of heat.

She washes unhurriedly, and once that's done she lies back and just basks. Steam twists lazily around her. The bustle of the city seems as if it’s miles away, and the dangers which they’ll head out in search of tomorrow, worlds distant.

It’ll feel very different tomorrow, of course. But that only makes it more important to enjoy a little bit of luxury while she can get it, just as Talanah said.

She lies back. Oh yes, this is _exactly_ her idea of luxury. All she needs to complete it is Aloy, and for the moment, she’ll settle for thinking of her.

Well, maybe a little more than just thinking of Aloy. Closing her eyes, Rey starts to massage her breasts, a slow and gentle motion as she feels her pleasure grow. Soon, with one hand she begins to pinch and toy with a nipple, with the other strokes down her belly in imitation of Aloy’s tender touch, across the dark spread of her bush – newly and neatly trimmed – and then further down.

It’s not as good as Aloy making love to her, because of course it can’t be. But it does produce a pleasant bloom of heat in her belly, and her clit swells a little in response. Rey continues, closing her eyes and just enjoying the sensations. Gently she draws her fingers back and forth across her holds, stoking the low flame of pleasure inside herself.

Her reverie is broken by a familiar sigh of pleasure. When she opens her eyes, Aloy is leaning against the doorframe, her eyes glittering lustfully.

“Hello there,” Rey grins. Her insouciance is punctured a little by a hitch in her breath, but that means Aloy smiles even more broadly. Rey doesn’t stop touching herself.

"For a girl who lived inside an old war machine," Aloy remarks as she removes her top, "you look remarkably at home here." Amusement quirks her eyebrow.

With her free hand Rey twists the water into ringlets, then sends a little wave running around the edge of the pool. The other stays between her thighs, which only seems right when Aloy’s clothes are coming off. "I may have grown up a scavenger, but I _was_ also the granddaughter of an Emperor." For perhaps the first time, she finds it easy to joke about. "Strictly speaking, I'm more royal than Avad. A Galactic princess."

The reply to that comes with a smirk, as Aloy’s knickers slide to the floor. “A princess who nonetheless fucks under a cloak in the wilds with a Nora savage.”

Rey shrugs. “I never claimed to be a typical royal. And honestly, I don’t know how anyone keeps their hands off that Nora. She’s ravishing.” Rey lets her eyes slowly travel up Aloy’s sculpted body, grinning filthily when they make eye contact.

“You really are the world’s least subtle seductress.”

“Or I’m the most honest. And I do have some tricks up my sleeve…” As Aloy puts her foot over the edge, Rey pulls the water away, then a little further as she puts her other foot down.

"What on-" Aloy blurts. Then her eyes follow the parting water all the way to Rey. And in turn, teasingly, Rey opens her legs. "Oh, we _are_ being playful tonight. Certainly not your typical royal."

Slowly, Rey relinquishes her hold on the water, and lets it pool again around Aloy’s calves as she advances on Rey, and then her thighs.

Aloy sinks into her embrace, first kissing and then tipping her head back with little gasps as Rey turns her attentions to her breasts. First she kisses between them, but with such temptation so close it’s only a moment or two before the trail of kisses leads her to a nipple.

“You really love these boobs, huh?” laughs Aloy, wrapping her arms around her. Rey responds by taking hold of Aloy’s arse and pulling her close, feeling her lover’s sodden bush against her belly. “Mm… hey Rey, you know what we’re in the perfect position for?”

“I wouldn’t presume to-” Rey breaks off as Aloy shifts a little and thrusts lightly with her hips, rubbing herself against Rey’s thigh. “ _Aaah._ That’s how you want it?”

“Yeah.” Aloy’s voice is husky with desire. “Can I?”

“Of course. If it makes you feel good, do it.”

Aloy thrusts harder as Rey kneels up and pulls her closer still. The redhead’s cheeks are flushed with excitement, and Rey can only marvel at her, luxuriating in the damp heat of Aloy’s sex on her skin and the supple strength of the redhead’s body. To _rut_ with her like this is thrillingly raw, primal even, and the only way to respond is with vigour.

Rey’s fingers dimple Aloy’s buttocks as she moves her thigh against her lover’s cunt, and with her mouth she delicately teases Aloy’s nipples. Yes, she truly loves these boobs. How couldn’t she? The little buds are hard already, a delicious contrast to the softness which skates across her thigh.

“How muscly are your legs?” Aloy gasps.

“You like it?” Rey coos. Then she grins at the mewl of pleasure that Aloy makes and makes a dirty growl of her voice. “Yeah you do, gorgeous.”

She doesn’t speak any further, lovingly sucking Aloy’s nipples as she devotes herself to her partner’s pleasure. She feels Aloy’s deep breaths and moans as tantalising vibrations through her lips. Aloy’s fingers nestle in her hair, holding Rey close to her breasts. Waves race across the water, disturbed by the vigour of their lovemaking.

Aloy is a spectacle and then some, shards of light rippling across her. Her movement is a hard, hot grind against Rey’s leg, and her cheeks fairly glow pink. The blush spreads down to the tops of her breasts, and Rey feels the warmth of it on her face.

Rey’s starting to understand just how much she loves getting Aloy off. In her fleeting dalliances she’s enjoyed pleasing other women, but with Aloy it becomes a need. Rey feels the ember-hot ache awaken between her own thighs, but she won’t think of her own pleasure just yet. She has to hear the sounds her lover makes, to feel this beautiful body shudder in rapture and to feel, with the Force, the raw emotion that spills from her.

Aloy’s close. Rey can tell, feeling her girlfriend start to tremble, more and more. When she comes, she shakes all over with the intensity of her orgasm, subsiding against Rey with a grateful sigh and gazing happily down at her.

“You really were pent-up,” Rey grins, kissing Aloy’s nipples as she strokes down the redhead’s back, and then lifting her lips to meet Aloy’s. “What now, Aloy?”

“Well,” Aloy says. “How about we… watch each other?”

“But you’re right here,” Rey says, pouting before she even realises she’s doing so. “I wanna fuck you some more.”

“I know you do.” Aloy’s smile is both sweet and distinctly cheeky now. “But you were putting on quite a show when I walked in, and I’d like to see you finish it. You do look amazing when you touch yourself, Rey. Besides…” Getting up and moving away, she bends over the side of the bath, and from the heap of her clothes she produces a dildo of pale silver. “I’ve a show for you as well… ah, now I’ve got you enticed, right?”

“Yeah,” Rey purrs, already rubbing her clit again. “Now try and keep up.”

It’s no wonder, she thinks, that her lover was mistaken for a gift from the Nora’s Goddess. Especially when she sits here, light from the pool playing over her nude form, and her legs parted to show the red hair and the pinkness beneath.

Rey can’t hold back her admiring sigh, and Aloy’s teeth flash white between her lips. She sets the head of her toy at her opening, and slowly, slowly pushes it in. A slow sigh ripples through Aloy’s statuesque body, and she begins a smooth, steady rhythm of thrusts.

In response, Rey lifts her hips out of the water, fully exposing her cunt. “This is what you want to see, isn’t it Aloy? My little quim?” She puts a growl in her voice, knowing now how it turns her lover on. Aloy, she’s learned, likes her lusty and brazen.

And for her part, she realises that she enjoys being lusty and brazen. After spending so long on the pedestal others put her on, she relishes saying and doing these things, just being unabashedly sexual.

Aloy gives a grateful sigh. “ _Just_ what I wanted to see. You’ve got the prettiest sex, Rey.”

A little bit of Rey wants to dispute that, given the view she’s enjoying, but she takes the compliment. Needing more stimulation, she moves her other hand down and slides two fingers into her cunt, letting out a deep moan.

The pressure inside her grows swiftly now, because if there’s one thing better than the thought of Aloy touching her, it’s seeing Aloy’ give herself pleasure. Actually, and even better, Rey’s watching Aloy get off on her own arousal.

Aloy’s cheeks are a warm pink now, and the silver length of the dildo glistens with slick. But Rey has a head start, the glorious heat flaring between her legs as she fucks herself. Closer, closer… and she sees Aloy’s gaze rove hungrily up her body, and at the moment they lock eyes she _feels_ Aloy’s want, crackling through the air like electricity.

She peaks with a high-pitched yelp, caught off guard by the intensity of her own climax as she judders, and slumps back against the side of the bath, breathing hard.

And that’s all Aloy needs. The redhead’s little yelps grow higher and higher in pitch, until she goes still and the cries abruptly stop, swallowed up in her orgasm before she gives a fierce little gasp of release. Her warm almond eyes find Rey’s, and she gives a shaky smile before her eyes travel down to the toy.

“See what you do to me, Rey?” she coos, withdrawing it from her sopping folds.

“Yes I do,” Rey replies happily. “Anything you want to do together now?”

“Well.” Aloy’s eyes flick down to the dildo. “How are you with toys, Rey?”

“Oh, I’m a fan.” That’s one thing Rey had lots of time to discover on Jakku. She found a nice, manageable dildo still sealed in its packaging once, back on Jakku. She misses that toy a lot more than her old metal box of a home. “Come here and ravish me, Aloy.”

She stands to meet Aloy, letting the other woman ease her onto the side of the bath while she embraces and kisses her. Aloy’s free hand slips between her thighs, caressing with a featherlight touch.

“Legs apart,” Aloy breathes, running the head of the toy along the curve of Rey’s arse. Eagerly, Rey turns and sits back on the marble, opening her legs.

Aloy runs the point of the dildo over her labia, then the length of her slit so that Rey lets out a longing little whimper. Finally she watches Aloy set it at the opening of her vulva, and she find herself pleading, needing to see it slip into her.

It’s been a while since she used toys, and she aches to feel this inside her. Not that what Aloy’s done to her with her hands and mouth hasn’t been exquisite, but there’s something incredibly potent about the hardness of the dildo inside her. Not to mention that it’s already slick from Aloy pleasuring herself.

Now Aloy obliges, and a whimper breaks loose from Rey’s mouth as her vulva parts for the smooth metal.

“Aww Rey, you’re tight,” Aloy murmurs, eyes fixed on hers. “Been a while, huh?”

“Yes,” Rey whines, knowing full well how desperate she sounds and not caring in the slightest. “I need it, Aloy.”

There’s no scorn or superiority in her lover’s eyes, only tenderness. Aloy doesn’t even say anything, just kissing her deeply as she slips the toy further in.

Rey judders and gasps, feeling it stretch her. She feels a greater surge of heat, low in her belly, when Aloy takes a long look, biting her lip. She locks eyes with Rey, and the lust burning in her eyes is almost more than Rey can take. “Fill me, Aloy,” she pleads.

Aloy obliges, but gently, easing her dildo just a little further in with each thrust until it bottoms out inside Rey. Hot pleasure wells up inside the Jedi, and she arches her back, tipping her head back with a gratified sigh. There are droplets on her thighs now, which definitely didn’t all come from the bath.

“I-I… need,” she stammers, getting up. Aloy immediately understands, stooping just a little to angle the dildo up. That gets it rubbing against Rey’s front wall, wringing whimpers from her throat as it courses in and out.

Aloy’s lips brush against hers, and Rey shivers pleasurably at each kiss as Aloy traverses her cheek, her neck… down to her breast, and there’s the sweet tug of Aloy’s mouth at her nipple. Rey’s fingers curl around the fiery braids as her cunt clenches hard around the toy.

“You’re incredible Aloy, incredible, you’re – oh fuck _yes_ , give it to me…”

Aloy’s response is to redouble her efforts, filling Rey again and sweeping her up in a climax which wipes out all thought, a feeling which blots out all else because all her mind can hold is this explosion of pleasure. All Rey can do is cry out, letting Aloy know just what it is that she’s done to her.

Her legs give way, and she tries in vain to steady herself against Aloy. Strong arms catch and steady her. Slick pours from her now, soaking the toy and the hand with which Aloy holds it, and Rey would feel obscene if it didn’t feel this wonderful.

Aloy hums happily in her ear, gently easing the toy out of her. Rey lets out one last noise, somewhere between a sigh and a moan, feeling her lower lips still agape. No words are spoken for a good while, perhaps because both of them realise that words would only cheapen this moment. They’re _with_ one another, completely, consummately.

And that, for Rey, is a pleasure far beyond anything that can be bought with precious metals and marble.

It ends in them sitting in the shallows again, relaxing in an embrace as reflected light plays across their skin. “I’m with you in this,” Rey tells Aloy, kissing her cheek and then her lips. “I’ll face whatever threat this is, depend on that.”

“I’d say you don’t know how much that means to me,” Aloy smiles as she cups Rey’s cheek. “But I think, maybe alone on this world, you actually might.”


	14. The Jewel and the Blood Seeker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wild Nil appeared!

Erend insists on providing escort duties to the edge of Carja territory. Over breakfast at the palace, he and Avad have laid out the need to retake Noon Kiln or at least garrison another village on the border, ready to receive whatever tidings the hunting party send and sally forth in response. After what happened with Hades, no chances will be taken.

Which means they’re back to hiking, to Aloy’s mild regret. Had they just set out as the four huntresses, they could have doubled up on Striders or Chargers and ridden south at speed. Sure, that would’ve taken some getting used to for Talanah and Vanasha, but the two Carja women are open-minded enough.

But they’ve only two Focuses between them, and fast passage would leave the heavily armed Oseram and Cara in the dust. At least this is a chance to ward off getting saddle-sore, and it’s prudent not to go thundering through the jungle, if Aloy’s honest with herself.

At this point she has to remind herself that Rey hasn’t yet seen a Stalker or had to contend with multiple Ravagers and Longlegs in a confined space. She’s not about to lose her girlfriend to mere carelessness.

The couple lope along at the side of the column with the other two women, all of them conversing quite easily now. So far nothing’s been said about Rey’s origins, except for Vanasha remarking that even she doesn’t recognise the accent. It’s easy to avoid the subject. They have, after all, the more immediate concern of what might be waiting for them at Noon Kiln.

But a dream from last night is still sitting ominously on the horizon of Aloy’s mind, deepening her suspicions about what’s causing this menace. It might not be Hades or Hephaestus, but it feels like something akin to them… and yet not akin, somehow.

“Can I ask what’s on your mind?” Rey asks her, taking her hand.

“Sure.” Aloy searches for the words. “I woke up today, and couldn’t stop thinking about the Metal Devils – the Horus, I mean, up above Mother’s Watch.”

“The huge machine on the mountain, with all the tendrils?”

Aloy nods. “It’s from the Faro Plague, the war that ended the old world. I keep thinking now about how that thing was destroyed right on top of Eleuthia, a Cradle. It never knew about what lay beneath. The facility wasn’t uncovered. Had that happened, one of Horizon’s last chances would’ve been wiped out. It was all so precarious for Elisabet and her people.” She sighs, shaking her head. “I mean, we’ve talked about Faro. Just think how much damage one man did. Between all this and what happened in the Cut… it just makes me nervous about what we might find.”

“I’d say your record’s pretty good at this point,” Rey tells her with an earnest smile. “And now Talanah, Vanasha and I will have your back.”

“And the Vanguard,” Erend chips in from the head of the column. “My men would appreciate some credit if there’s any going.”

“Then be ready to earn it,” Aloy joshes him. “I see Longlegs up ahead.”

She and Rey move ahead with Talanah and Vanasha, crawling up on a ledge to get a proper vantage. Ahead, a few large gullies meet. Below are four Longlegs and five Watchers, and a distant booming heralds a Tallneck.

“Well,” Talanah says when the huge machine shows itself between pillars of rock. “That strikes me as a reason to hold the Vanguard back. Don’t want anyone getting squashed, do we?”

No argument. So they consider the machines below.

“Power cells on their backs,” Rey mutters. Her hand moves instinctively to her shock arrows, and Aloy nods approvingly. “Anything else I should know about?”

“A couple of things,” Talanah says. “That bulge on the chest is a “concussion sac”, which powers sonic attacks, and the wings, which have vents it can use to blow fire.”

“And if we take out the sac?”

“A nice big, loud blast,” Talanah smiles. “You and Aloy grab hardpoints and hit those. Probably won’t drop a Longleg straight away, but it’ll hurt them badly and might do for a Watcher if it’s close enough. Vanasha and I will go for the power cells and stun everything in range. Then we lure the rest into the Vanguard’s hammers.”

There isn’t much to say about the execution of their plan, except that with four adept hunters, it’s simpler than any other time Aloy’s had to face Longlegs. The four of them nock arrows, get their initial volley away, and then pick off the weakened machines in a way that’s almost businesslike. Erend and his men only have to attend to a single wounded Longleg and two Watchers.

“Almost disappointed,” Erend remarks.

Aloy shakes her head. “Oh, I’m sure there’s a fight waiting at Noon Kiln. It’s just as well this hasn’t delayed us.”

“No argument there,” Vanasha says. “I’ll take an anticlimax over a battle we didn’t see coming.” She gives Aloy a look which leads Rey to ask just what they’re referring to. It gets her the story of how the two women stole the boy-king of the Shadow Carja and his mother from the wicked priests of the Buried Shadow, though not without the Shadow Carja sending some enormous machines after them.

“If we get back to Meridian in one piece,” Erend chips in. “I’m sure Avad will introduce you. He doesn’t like to talk of blood and chaos in front of his mother and little brother, though.”

“They’ve seen enough,” Vanasha says with feeling.

“And we’ll go looking for more, that others won’t have to see that.”

“There’s an ideal I like,” Rey smiles, tapping two fingers gently on her lightsaber. She’s in good company here, and can see why Aloy is proud to call these people friends.

A few hours later a presence, a strange one, impinges on Rey’s awareness. “Hold up,” she says, activating her Focus and watching it confirm her suspicion. “There’s someone out here with us.” She pulls out her Rattler, tensing.

Aloy activates her own Focus and follows her gaze, to the same yellow-orange silhouette of a man which Rey spies, out in the trees. She surprises Rey by not going for her bow or breaking into motion. Instead she makes an exasperated noise, straightens up and barks a name. “Nil! Come on out!” She turns to Rey and says “I suppose this was inevitable.”

“Your bandit-hunting friend?”

“Let’s just stick to “someone I’ve killed bandits with,” Rey.”

The man who must be Nil emerges, walking towards them with a swagger comparable to Poe Dameron, hands up in a pantomime of surrender. He’s dressed in peculiar, baggy breaches and nothing but a helmet and sparse armour up top. If anything, he wears more weapons about his torso than armour.

Curious. A carefully cultivated and maintained look, for a lone killer.

“I see a little warband, Aloy,” he drawls by way of greeting. “Are you looking to make up for our prematurely ended war?”

“The one that was about to end in the extinction of all life on Horizon? I don’t really count that as a mark against me, Nil.” Aloy’s not at her most patient today. “What are you doing out here?”

“Hunting, of course, though it’s been more of a wait than a chase.” Nil rests a hand on his sword-hilt, sitting rakishly low on his hip. “Where better to find carrion-eaters than around fresh kill? I heard about the destruction of Noon Kiln and knew that bandits would be drawn to the ruin like flies.”

Vanasha looks at him with distaste. “I won’t be too sorry for cheating you of some sport, bloodrat.”

The jibe doesn’t do anything to deter the man. Quite the opposite. “Oh, I welcome an assortment of women to do this with! So many combinations, so much talent brought together for a grand exhibition…”

“Is this all innuendo?” Rey asks Aloy in a low whisper.

Her partner shakes her head. “No, he really does mean killing. Nil talks about bloodshed the same way a drunk poet talks about sex. Still, help is help and he has a certain way with fighting brigand. I suspect that’s why he’s out here. Nil!” she barks again, interrupting his and Vanasha’s exchange. “If we’re going to have you along, I want any information you have.” Talanah gives her an approving nod.

“Well, I imagine the same thing that brings you here is what set a siren call in my ear,” Nil purrs. “Oh, I’m sure your aspirations are loftier, and the why concerns you more than the what.”

“The what is the immediate thing,” Erend says. He’s been stood back, regarding Nil like something he found on the sole of his boot. Rey guesses there’s some history there. “We need to take back the settlement. So I guess you can be of use, Outlander.”

“What a dull way to put it. So like an Oseram.” Nil comes close to Erend, smiling when the Oseram scowls. “Let’s not get caught up in the prelude. Ladies, shall we attend to the scouting?”

You’d think there’s something fundamentally carnal about Nil from the way he carries himself and dresses. There’s a suggestion of it in his manner of speaking too… except that then you have a conversation with him and realise that somehow, it just isn’t there. His lust isn’t even for blood. He lives for killing, and killing alone.

He even registers strangely to Rey’s second sight. She feels like he should be dark, but the murk around him is too changeable for that.

Best leave that for later. She needs to focus on the task at hand, that being scoping out what’s currently a bandit camp. They hunker down, surveying the camp.

From what Aloy says, the Carja who settled the camp were industrious. It shows. A few good-sized buildings stand proud of the walls. In impressively good nick, she thinks, for a place which was just hit hard by a giant machine. That might make things a little tricky in going up against the bandits, though as least they haven’t got round to fixing the damage to the scorched outer walls just yet.

“How many do you count, Aloy?”

“Thirty… one.”

“Good. Same here.”

Vanasha glances at them. “How do you see that many of them? Oh,” she says when they both tap their Focuses. “Right. Well, I’ve counted eight on the walls.”

“So we begin by taking them out,” Nil says, “and then we head into the camp and start the dance. That’ll be me and…”

“Me.” Rey says it quickly and firmly, and looks to Aloy when Talanah and Vanasha frown. “I’m prepared to bet I’m experienced in bladework than any of you three, and my weapon’s deadlier.”

“Your… what do you call it?” asks Talanah. “Lightsaber?” Rey hasn’t used it in front of either her or Vanasha yet.

“She’s right.” Now Aloy gets the quizzical looks, and she smiles at that. “I’ve seen Rey take the head off a Scorcher with that blade in a single swing. It’ll also terrify the bandits.”

“So, for the rest of us?” Vanasha says. “I could circle around to the rear with Erend and his ironplates, while you distract the bandits. And that bridge looks good and exposed. Dare say Aloy and Talanah could take a good toll on anyone crossing.”

Not that they start off there. Instead, Aloy and Talanah begin the fight by loosing the first arrows, killing sentries by the western gate and giving Rey and Nil a chance to reach the gate. Both of them fire a couple of arrows of their own, downing other bandits, and a cry goes up as they reach the gate.

Ten bandits are coming across the bridge. Two are taken out by Nil’s arrows, on by Rey’s. Two stragglers at the back are hit by arrows from the side and fall. Five are left, and Rey draws her lightsaber to meet them. It’s satisfying to see the shock in their eyes when it lights up, more satisfying still when she cuts clean through the blade of the lead bandit’s sword.

Fighting these men is tricky, in a novel way. Hazards of facing low tech, Rey thinks. Their spears and swords can’t resist a lightsaber, but that also means that they don’t stop when they meet her blade. Even if she splits them in two in the process and scares them shitless, true to Aloy’s prediction.

It means that even more than usual, Rey is constantly moving, always on the attack and slashing through the defences of her enemies. Don’t let them adjust, keep them overwhelmed. When they bunch up, pull the Rattler and pelt them with sparking shards of sharp metal. Then go straight on the attack with the lightsaber.

Nil seems to fight much the same. Rey will say this for him, he is good at this.

She’s acutely aware that he’s revelling in it all the same. She fights, Nil dances. It means that they’re somewhat out of sync, even if they’re skilled enough to work around it. Rey puts the thought out of her head as the last of these bandits get within reach. She’s already having to work at not obviously using the Force in front of anyone but Aloy. She sticks to just relying on the speed and awareness it grants her. That serves for these brigands.

A few more come at them across the bridge, but a crash and a roar of voices to their rear makes them hesitate. That’s enough to doom them.

Aloy comes clambering up onto the bridge, her spear drawn and with electricity flowing across its blade. She comes at the bandits from behind them, taking out another. Then Rey’s able to reach her side, and they press into the main camp.

Now here’s the synchronicity that Rey’s missed, the sort she’s only experienced fleetingly with one or two others and never with such certainty. It carries them into the heart of the camp and through the rest of the fight. The end comes quite abruptly as the bandits break and run. Not all make it.

“Well, that’s a different kind of art to mine and Aloy’s usual,” Nil grins languidly. “Painting in black char rather than red rivers.”

Rey looks at him through narrowed eyes and extinguishes her saber. “I don’t call that art. It was something we needed to do.”

“Necessity is right.” He grins, a startlingly predatory expression. “But necessity sometimes makes for the greatest pleasures, just like this. Venting that most animal of needs, extirpating a stain on the world!” Something about his tone makes Rey feel inordinately dirty, and she shares an uncomfortable look with Aloy.

“Well,” her partner smiles, coming right up to Rey so she can take her free hand and squeeze, “now you’ve met Nil.” She’s back to her usual, composed self.

“Yeah.” Rey looks down the slope to where the Vanguard have stormed the rear entrance and are now securing the settlement. “Does he ever get less worrying?”

“Nope. Though I think you’d already guessed that, huh?” Aloy shoots her a rueful look. “Still, we’ve got Noon Kiln back for the Carja. Let’s see what’s left of the previous tenants.”

“And what they’ve left us.”


	15. Flamefang

Two of the bandits are still alive, one wounded in the arm and one having submitted. Vanasha and an Oseram soldier bring them before Erend with their hands bound, and pitch them to the ground at his feet. The Vanguard’s commander looks down at them, regarding their sullen faces.

He starts with an amused drawl. “Morning, boys. Nil, if you shoot my captives then you’ll go to Sunstone Rock in their place,” he adds tersely. Nil scowls, but puts his arrow away. Erend turns back to the bandits. “You’re from the Two Claws. Thought you’d help yourselves to Noon Kiln again?”

“Blackwing Snag, you mean,” snarls one. “Were Blackwing Snag for three years ‘fore your little Nora bitch drove us out-" Aloy has to grab Erend and Rey's arms to restrain them both "-it’ll be again. Would be now, weren’t for that machine.”

“The Flamefang?” Aloy prods.

“You named it already?” The other bandit hawks and spits, the greenish globule landing short of Aloy’s boots. She sees Rey scowl, the only sign of anger her girlfriend allows to show. “Of course you glossed-up hunter types would.”

“Keeping on track,” Vanasha says sharply, before Talanah can take umbrage. “You say this place will be yours _again_. You weren’t sticking about?”

“Damn said that already!” the first bandit sneers.

"Something about this is wrong," Aloy mutters.

"How so?" Erend asks.

"Second that," adds Talanah. "I don't see your problem."

"I think I do," Rey puts in. "The buildings, they're intact. Is that it?”

Vanasha nods. “Machine attacks, especially those by something as big as a Thunderjaw, like this is, tend to leave a lot of smashed structures."

Aloy finds herself nodding too, remembering the destroyed settlement where she first hunted a Sawtooth, and the ravaging of the Embrace by the Hades’ forces. A corrupted Thunderjaw levelled much of Mother’s Watch. The memory of that leads her on to another thought. Because at some point, while they were occupied, the area has gone as silent as the devastated Sacred Land.

Vanasha continues, and Aloy hears her as if from a distance. "The Flamefang would've had to aim to not damage any of the stone. But why would a machine do that? Unless, of course…"

Aloy says it. "Someone was thinking for it."

Everything snaps back into focus. Which is just as well, because that’s when the roar rings out from the forest, unmistakably mechanical. Other noises, a horrible kind of grinding squeal, answer it. Then the roar comes again, and the ground begins to stir with enormous footfalls.

“And that’s why we weren’t staying,” grunts the first bandit, as if it needs saying. His captors don’t pay him any real heed.

“How far off is that?” Vanasha asks worriedly. They all look to Talanah, trusting the most experienced hunter.

She tilts her head, biting her lip. “Two miles. Which gives us maybe five minutes, if the Hellmouths keep pace with the big one.” Talanah turns to the Oseram. “Every man who can shoot, we’ll need you with a bow or a sling. Freeze is likely to be our best bet here.”

“I’ve found a Deathbringer gun!” calls one soldier. “Firespitters too!”

“That’ll also be good. Pick your position carefully. We want to surprise these beasts.”

Vanasha heads for the wall. “I’ll see to that, Talanah.”

“Oh, she is good,” Talanah murmurs, eyes on the other woman’s retreating back. Then she realises that both Rey and Aloy are looking at her, coughs and gets back to business. “Rey. Ever face a Thunderjaw?”

“Ahh, no.”

That earns her a grim look from the Sunhawk. “Well, let’s assume the same principles apply. We’ve got disc launchers on its back – those are often the biggest danger. And it also packs weapons on its head.”

Rey looks from her to Aloy. “Anything else I ought to know?”

“Well, it can also split an armoured man in two with its jaws,” Aloy volunteers. She looks at Rey’s face. “Yeah, that’s what I thought when Talanah told me. It’ll also try to stomp you or smash you with its tail, so generally try and stay back.” Then she shoots Nil a look. “Sticking around this time?”

“It seems rather late to leave,” he drawls. “I will just have to settle for the less satisfying kind of killing now.”

Talanah almost explodes. “ _Less satis-_ ” she restrains herself partway through, letting out an angry hissing noise through her lips. “If we all come through this intact, I’ll be very satisfied indeed.”

“I see movement!” calls one of the Vanguard. So do the huntresses.

Rey draws a shaky breath. The Hellmouths are the first machines to appear out of the trees; four of them, moving faster than their bigger ally. Black and crimson armour, same as the Ripclaw. They’re every bit as horrid as the Nora hunters said. Big, bulky things with long snouts and mouths full of grinding teeth. There’s something hoggish about them, Rey can’t help but think. A bit like a Gamorrean, but much less attractive.

“We need to take those out, and fast,” Aloy declares. “I’m not sure the gate will hold them.”

“Fire!” Erend yells, and his men on the walls open up at the charging machines. They come barrelling up the gangway, taking arrows but not stopping at all. Rey can already hear the saw-meets-drill plates of their vile mouths spinning up to an ear-rending _shriek_. Just a dozen yards more, and they’ll smash through the charred wood of the gate.

Two of them go down when the Vanguard bring their scavenged guns to bear, but the remaining pair career into the gate, and Rey feels the impact underfoot as the wood and metal gives way.

“Crap!” Talanah growls. Now they’re in a bind. They can’t have threats on both sides, but the Fireclaw is drawing close now, its footsteps reverberating harder through the walls.

Rey looks at Aloy. “We can handle them, right?”

Aloy looks right back, face set in a hard frown, and nods. “We’ll have to. Let’s go.” They leap down as the Hellmouths round the corner, seeking the defenders. Aloy’s got three arrows drawn back already and when she looses them, they crunch hard into the mandible of one machine.

The Hellmouth stalls from the impact about ten metres from Rey, shaking its head as if groggy from the impact. Then its red lenses lock onto the nearest target – Rey. A guttural noise swells up from somewhere in it, turning to a metal squeal as its mouth parts burst into motion again.

Perhaps this design was made for mulching wood or boring through rock, but Rey’s not sure. Other machines do that already. And even compared to Scrappers, this thing looks like a weapon – a weapon of carnage and raw terror.

Rey activates her Focus and tries to gauge what there is to target on a monster like this. Power cells on the back, what looks like a reservoir of Blaze on the underbelly behind an armoured plate, but there’s no time before that because right now one of the Hellmouths is coming for her.

She ignites her lightsaber and pivots away from the charge. The grinding vortex of its mouth is horrifying, and if so much as grazes her then it will tear great strips of her flesh away. But the Force is with Rey, and she’s too fast for the Hellmouth. As she dodges, she keeps close enough to strike a blow of her own, carving a long furrow along its metal flank and angling it to cut through the belly plate. She feels it give, and the blade strike something underneath.

She hears something begin to sizzle, smells fumes from burning Blaze and when the second Hellmouth comes at her she vaults over it, putting itself between her and its companion.

Aloy’s spotted what Rey has done, and changes tack accordingly. She keeps a safe distance and pelts the Hellmouth by Rey with Freeze arrows. Its black armour turns brittle and gets a coat of ice, even as it tries to catch Rey with its hideous jaws and the other comes for her too. Rey hears a rumble as the fire catches properly in the first machine’s guts.

She needs to get clear, so she jumps, grabbing a beam above and hauling herself up onto a roof before the first Hellmouth’s bloated belly bursts in a great gout of fire. The other gets the full blast of it, its weakened shell cracking. Rey leaps back down to finish it.

However, her partner’s already making the next move. Aloy lands a Shock arrow on its back and the electronic squeal tells Rey to get clear right as she lands. She has to spring though, as the enraged Hellmouth comes after her, and she’s lucky that its damaged state slows it down.

That gets Rey out of the next explosion’s range. She turns immediately and races back, stabbing with her lightsaber straight into the crown of the Hellmouth’s ugly head.

“Great work, Rey!” Aloy calls.

Rey raises an eyebrow. “I thought you’d have wanted to finish that one.”

“I thought I’d better save my arrows,” Aloy says grimly, jerking her head at the booming footsteps and the rustling and crack of vegetation.

“Fair,” Rey says, feeling still more nervous now. They scramble back up to the wall, just in time to see the leviathan break from the tree cover.

The Flamefang might actually be bigger than the Thunderjaw they saw the other day. It’s bulked out with heavy armour, sheened in the same sable and red as its smaller counterparts. Rey can make out pipes in the gaps of its armour, under its chin, and what must be reservoirs of Blaze on its back and under its belly. The eyes flare with crimson malice, and when it roars again, everything inside Rey seems to shake.

Her eyes fix on the guns on its back, and then the ones that sit either side of its head.. “Tearblast arrows?”

“Definitely Tearblast,” Aloy nods. She’s already got a couple in her hand. “And then Hardpoint.” She watches the Flamefang lumber closer. It moves with the assurance of an apex predator. She calls up to the others on the wall. “We need to have people on the ground! We can’t afford to all be static targets.”

Talanah and Vanasha nod, and leap down to join them. The four women bolt through the shattered gate and slip in behind whatever cover they can find. For Rey and Aloy, that means the carcasses of the two Hellmouths which didn’t make it.

Rey’s about sneak a look when Rey hisses at her. “Down, right down. The thing’s got radar.” And sure enough, there comes an odd, electronic purr. She reaches out with the Force, using that to sense what the machine is up to behind her, as much as she can. She senses danger, but not for her right now. It’s for… the Vanguard.

Aloy looks at her, catches the expression on her face and immediately knows. “Now?”

“Almost.” Rey sets three arrows to her string, all Tearblast. She draws a breath, holding it for just a moment. “Now!”

They spring into the open, right as the Flamefang thunders a challenge to Erend and his men. Its disc launchers open up, raining searing beams down and sending the Oseram ducking for cover. The one upside is that it’s presenting a whole lot of flank for them to target. Their arrows fly and crunch into armour. The Tearblast darts give their characteristic _bwaaarm_ and then detonate, ripping away chunks and, thanks to a smart hit by Aloy, the near disc launcher.

That gets them the machine’s attention, and it swings round to face them immediately. Blue light snaps from its head-mounted cannons, raking the ground and sending all four huntresses diving and rolling for cover.

There’s a lull, but Talanah’s already shouting “Move! No sooner to they break cover again than the Flamefang’s remaining disc launcher makes itself known, raining down white-hot lances of light at their heels.

Worse is to come. The Flamefang roars again and charges, jaws open wide as it comes after Rey and Aloy. Talanah leaps behind a lump of rubble, Vanasha goes the other way and scrambles up the wall. Aloy follows Talanah, but Rey has another idea. She spins around and darts past the lunging Flamefang.

Her lightsaber snaps to life in her hand and she cuts a deep furrow into one treelike leg, immediately hobbling it just a little.

Erend’s men seize the opportunity as the machine slows, and hammer its side with their cannons. Gouges open in the metal. The leviathan roars in apparent anger, firing again with its disc launcher to halt the barrage. Then it turns back to the irritants closer to hand.

Rey spins her saber frantically as the cannon rounds snap at her through the air, dodging some and deflecting others. A reprieve comes when an arrow comes out of nowhere and rips one of the cannons away from her attacker’s head.

“Less satisfying,” Nil purrs behind Rey. “But there’s still some fun to be had.”

Aloy, Vanasha and Talanah emerge from their shelter and add a volley of their own, enough to draw the machine’s attention before it can strike again at Rey and Nil. They use the opportunity to get clear.

But there’s a rumble somewhere inside the machine, the sense of something building, and Rey feels a horrible rush of dread. “Down!” yells Talanah, and the trio all drop to the ground, just in time.

The fire that erupts from the Flamefang's jaws isn't orange. Much too hot for that. It's a honed jet of blue-white, and even from here Rey feels the wash of heat.

While the others have simply thrown themselves flat, Aloy’s dropped smoothly into a slide, pulling her bow taut again and sending another Hardpoint hammering into the machine’s head. That puts paid to the last cannon.

The Flamefang’s truly enraged now, and wheels around, whipping with its tail so hard that had Aloy not ducked, it would take her head off. Fire gouts from its mouth again, and Rey feels faint as the intense heat washes over her. She smells the sparse hairs on her arms starting to singe.

The onslaught’s only averted when a ripple of gunfire sparks along its flank, hammering and denting the armour. Several of the Vanguard have regained the wall, taking aim and raking their attacker with volleys from their cannons. The torrent finally breaches the armour on its cannonless side, and the Blaze beneath ignites. The explosion rocks the Flamefang, almost knocking it over, but it doesn’t fall. Even with all that damage, it stays upright.

The Flamefang lumbers up to the wall. Its jaws snatch two soldiers off the wall at once. They barely have time to scream, though Talanah makes a horrified shriek at what happens next. The blue fire roars again, and black bones and glowing bits of armour tumble to the ground.

Rey stumbles back to regroup with the others. There’s a commotion behind them. Oh crap, Rey thinks when she looks. Their two captives have gotten loose. Well, hands still tied, but they’re doing a runner – and with the Flamefang still on its feet, no time to stop them.

“This is what you get!” spits one fleeing bandit as he passes them, aiming to run past the machine. “I hope you all burn!”

Perhaps the shouting is what does for him. The Flamefang turns and slams its tail straight down. The effect is rather like a mallet and a tent peg, only messier.

His fellow gets a little further, but it does him no good. The disc launcher fires again, the fiery beam catches the running man and turns him to dust.

The Flamefang lurches back to face the five on the ground and meets a withering hail of arrows. They punch into the sable armour and the containers of Blaze under that, and a second explosion flares up. That puts paid to the second disc launcher, and the Flamefang drops to its knees.

Rey exchanges an elated look with Aloy, only to see the expression on her lover’s face turn to horror. Reluctantly, she turns to look at the Flamefang and gasps in disbelief.

It’s getting back up. Glowing-hot metal wounds gape on its flanks - it's charred to the point of being black all over now - and in other places its metal skeleton and synthetic muscles have been laid bare by their incessant attacks. Smoke pours from it and still, _still_ it won’t give up the ghost.

“How do we put this thing down?” Rey hisses, glancing over her shoulder at it.

“There’s one last weak spot that I can see.” Talanah pulls out her sling. “Light some arrows, Rey. Aloy and I will hit it with Shock bombs and run. You’ll need to land a shot straight in its mouth. Vanasha and Nil...”

“We’ve got shock arrows,” Vanasha replies, handing a clutch to Nil.

“Good.”

The Flamefang’s dousing the walls with fire again, driving Erend and his men right back down where they can’t take a hand.

Close now, and the leviathan sees them approaching. The molten red eyes fix on them. It growls again and charges them, the earth shaking under its irregular steps.

“Hold!” Talanah calls. “Hold… _Now!_ ”

Her and Aloy’s shock bombs hit, and the Flamefang seizes up, jaws agape. Rey sees her opening, there for the taking. She’s dimly aware of Aloy and Talanah diving away to either side, but right now her eyes are fixed on the telltale flash of green amid the blackness, the angle of her bow, the tensing of the string…

“ _Fire!_ ” Talanah yells, and Rey looses her flaming arrows. All three vanish into the open maw and strike at the gullet within. The resulting burst of flame ripples into its body, bursts from its underbelly and blows the top of its head off for good measure.

Rey, stood closest, is lifted clean off her feet and is lucky to the caught by Talanah and Vanasha. “Whew,” is all she can say for a moment, as the ringing in her ears gives way to rowdy cheers from the Vanguard. Then she says, “Can I claim a trophy from that?”

Talanah gives Aloy an amused look, then turns back to Rey. “I’d let it cool a little first.”

“Noted.” Rey struggles to her feet and moves gingerly towards the fallen giant. The red eyes have gone dark. The monster still looms in death, but it’s a husk, burned from the inside by its own fuel.

“This does illustrate my point, doesn’t it?” Nil asks. He directs his words solely at Rey. If she had to guess, she’d say that everyone else has already disagreed with his point at least once. “It’s just the same. The look in the lens doesn’t change, and it’s the same kind of angry right up until the red light goes out. No dynamics, no fear, no realisation that this is the end.”

Rey turns around to face him and asks the question with total sincerity. “What the fuck in the cosmos is your problem?”

“Let’s not get into that,” cautions Aloy. “Otherwise we will be up past bedtime. We need to tend to the dead – and the Flamefang needs looking at.”

Talanah is already there, crouched a short distance away from the broken machine, which still radiates heat fiercely. She points out differences to them between it and the Thunderjaw. “Is it just me,” she adds. “Or does it look like this was made to be more frightening than the Thunderjaw?”

“I’m inclined to say… you’re not wrong,” Aloy murmurs. “Which at least,” she smiles, slipping an arm around Rey’s waist and pulling her close for a kiss, relief showing in her eyes that they've made it through, “means an even better trophy.”


	16. Edge of the Sprawl

Dinner is a hearty affair that night. That seems to be inevitable when the Oseram have something to celebrate. Not to mention fallen comrades to mourn – respectfully buried, while the bandits have been lumped in a convenient pit and covered over without ceremony.

And to be frank, after a long hike and two fights, Aloy is as grateful for a break as anyone else. Not to mention they’ve had to strip the Flamefang’s massive carcass. There’s no sense in leaving waste to draw Scrappers and Glinthawks and besides, much of the salvage will go straight into weapons. That doesn’t stop it being a tiring process

Nil’s vanished into the jungle, having made noises about bandits potentially running from them today.

“We’ll send for reinforcements tomorrow,” Erend says. “The Rock isn’t exactly full right now, so they should be able to spare a squad or two, and then we’ll get a company from Meridian.” All ready to mount an expedition as soon as they’re needed, Aloy thinks.

“So from tomorrow, we’re the four huntresses,” Talanah smiles. “Which sounds like the name of a good tale.”

“Hear that, Rey?” Aloy beams, taking Rey’s hand and snuggling up close to her. “You’ll be in the Lodge’s chronicles before you’re even proclaimed as a Thrush. Taking down a new kind of machine as an initiate might be a first.”

Rey squeezes Aloy’s hand right back, but gives the others around her a cautious look. “Just so long as I don’t take too much of the credit. I merely struck the final blow, and I wouldn’t have known where to shoot it if not for Talanah’s direction.”

Erend shakes his head. “Iron ‘n’ spit, Rey, it’s harder to pay you a compliment than Aloy.”

“Sorry. It’s just-”

Talanah holds up a reassuring hand. “We appreciate modesty,” she smiles. “But a kill’s a kill, and that was a good one.”

A rumbling gurgle starts somewhere in Erend’s stomach and swells into a burp which surprises even its maker. Rey laughs as much as anyone else, much to Aloy’s relief. Talanah, always more genteel, is the only one to look as appalled as they all ought to.

“Did Rost ever belch like that?” Rey asks her. She’s deeply curious, Aloy understands, about just what sort of man her guardian was, so shape her so. And just under it, she sees the sorrow and loneliness that’s defined her lover for so long.

But Rey clearly wants cheerfulness rather than introspection, so Aloy gives her a smile. “Oh, just every once in a while. It’s funny, he was so formal and grave so often, but knock up a good hearty meal and…” she knocks back her own drink and produces a belch that rivals Erend’s. This time, even Talanah hoots.

It’s actually welcome, she finds, to have a memory of Rost brought up as a living, caring, happy and yes, belching man. In some ways, she’s feared she’s been losing him to the shadow of his loss. But Rey helps her light all of that up, and remember the human being who raised her.

Rey rests her head on Aloy’s shoulder, and sleepily, just a little drunkenly, murmurs “I’m so glad you’re not a princess.”

“I’d say I’ll show you just how much of a princess I’m not,” Aloy retorts. “But…” she yawns, “sleepy.”

“Tomorrow night, then?”

“Mm hmm.”

Much of the next morning is given over to metalwork. The settlement contained a forge which mercifully survived, so the Vanguard get it burning again and are soon fashioning fresh ammo from the components they salvaged yesterday.

Aloy, Rey, Talanah and Vanasha are also busy crafting. They’ll arm themselves with as much as they can carry, and leave the rest to Erend’s newly installed garrison.

“At least we didn’t get through too many of our tripwires,” Aloy mutters as they bring more armfuls of ridgewood back to the workshop (for that, they’ve had to go and forage). “Though if we’d had time to lay the ground at all, those would’ve been a good call.”

“That beast seemed too heavily armed to try any of that with, once it was with us,” Rey nods. “And those Hellmouths got in the way.”

“That’s the bit that worries me,” Talanah says as she enters. “Those things were working together. Maybe they could’ve been savvier, but then again without the two of you it might’ve been a lot harder. I mean, what were the odds of us having the Nora Seeker and the first member of the Jedi Tribe I ever heard of?”

Rey smiles. “A mentor of mine once said “never tell me the odds”, which I think definitely applies when they’re this low.”

Talanah cocks her head, scrutinising Rey. Aloy wants to change the subject, but knows it will only make things more awkward, and possibly all the more intriguing for Talanah.

“You are a curious one, Rey. Every friend or foe you’ve mentioned, you speak of them at if they’re a thousand miles away or more.” The Sunhawk puts her elbows on the work bench, and rests her chin on interlinked fingers. “What brought you to the Sundom, besides Aloy? Or rather, what brought you to Aloy?”

“Ennui,” Rey admits. “I went through some troubles where I’m from, and wanted away from it. Somewhere I could just adventure and be at peace, maybe come to terms with some things about myself. “Then I ran into Aloy, and we seemed to want a lot of the same things.”

Talanah raises an eyebrow at Aloy. “You’ve clearly made an impression on Aloy. _My_ memory of when things got too much for our dear Seeker is that she’d head off alone, not latch onto someone.”

Aloy finds it necessary to speak up, and hopefully pull some of the attention onto her. “People change, Talanah. I wanted to open up to someone. And Rey was different to my people and even yours, so it was quite easy. Doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous,” she adds, squeezing Rey’s hands.

A delighted smile makes Talanah’s face almost glow. “I’m all for it,” she says earnestly. “Especially as it’s got us another excellent partner in the hunt.”

“On which note,” Vanasha says. They all jump, suddenly realising that the spy is there and that none of them can say just when she came in. “We need to get on the road before too long. Assuming we know where we’re headed.”

Aloy shrugs a little. “I think it’s going to take more hunting before we know our true goal, in all honesty. For now, at least, the trail will be obvious. We just have to follow the Flamefang’s tracks.”

They catch Chargers a short way from the settlement, and ride hard for four days. South and then southeast they go, skirting most of the main machine sites but taking careful note of what they spot. There are a few broken-down bandit hideouts as well as a handful of ancient buildings.

Then, late in the fourth day, they round some hills and find themselves looking out over a city. It seems to be crammed into the valley, in between the steep slopes. Vanasha, who once tracked a Tenakth raiding party through the area, confirms that, and the huntresses have to make their way through an outer district.

“Forebear’s Quietness,” she names it, leaning back from Rey. “It’s not on many maps, but that’s the name.”

The buildings are arranged with a startling precision, great regular blocks which form straight-edged canyons. In places though, vast pinnacles of metal and stone burst from the already towering mass of buildings around them. Greenery riddles them too, with vines and branches bursting from the gaps where windows must have once been.

“No Hunter has travelled this far in years,” Talanah adds. “In the olden days a few Hawks and Thrushes might prowl the ruins for days for spoil, but with the Derangement it became too risky, especially at such a distance from anywhere else.”

“This was when the Estates began to fall, right?” Rey asks.

“Exactly. Plenty of nobles were Hunters – I mean, Hunters had to be nobles – so it was common for Estates to serve as waystations for those making their way south. Maybe, what with the victory in the Alight, that can resume. If we can retake more of our lands from the machines, after so many were destroyed in the fighting or left inert by Hades being banished.”

“Lot of work to be done before that can happen,” Aloy says gravely. “This quest, to begin with.”

She and Aloy both ride with a weapon in one hand and their Striders’ control wires in the other, while Talanah draws her bow and Vanasha a sling. No machine appears to trouble them, but they see them a way off. Grazers and Watchers, promising bigger and meaner beasts deeper into the city.

Aloy is agog at the sight. "I've never seen towers this big, save for the one at Devil’s Grief."

"Skyscrapers, Aloy," Rey says. "Once buildings get that big, they're called skyscrapers."

“Huh, poetic,” Talanah says behind Aloy. Rey shoots her a look, and Talanah holds up her free hand in a gesture of peace. “I meant it. It’s a curious word for us.”

"How many people did the ancients have, to need those?" Aloy wonders. She gets down from the saddle to get a bit more of a look, and the others do the same. "A couple of them could fit pretty much all the Nora." She blushes and shoots Rey a look, suddenly self-conscious. "Though I'm sure you're used to this scale."

Rey tilts her head. "Yes and no. I grew up exploring ships nearly this big, but those were all isolated in the desert. As for actual cities, I didn't see one until I was nearly twenty. So believe me," she puts her hand on her heart. "I find this strange too."

Then she tenses, immediately keeping her body closer to the wall. Aloy follows her eyes and sees it too; a massive winged shadow peeling away from one of the highest rooftops.

"Might be a Stormbird," she says. "Or something else, just as big and probably as unfriendly." Needless to say, they're not heading into the canyons of concrete, brick and metal today.

But it's a sight to fire Aloy's imagination. She finds she's still talking about it as they make dinner that night.

"When I don't have a mission, I might gather some hunters and go have a look there. Or just go alone, if I have to."

Rey moves close to Aloy and squeezes her hand. "I'll come with. If I can." 

"Maybe you could get us some of your people," Aloy suggests. "It bugs me to know that we're so primitive next to the rest of the Galaxy. Makes me want to catch up, not least because our situation’s so precarious."

But there's a frown on her face when she says it, and Rey immediately understands. "But you can't be sure that would be the best thing for your people."

The frown deepens. "What do you mean? How couldn’t it be a help."

Rey puts her chin on her knuckles, gazing into the distance. "There's a balance here, of sorts. All the tribes, the fauna. The Carja were at war with everyone else, after all, and then there are these Tenakth whom everyone keeps making worried noises about. I can't begin to predict how it would end up if the Republic popped up tomorrow."

“Not least when something’s already out of balance here,” Aloy says, just as quietly. Vanasha and Talanah are a way off, but she’d still rather not have to broach this subject with them now.

“Agreed. First things first. Like getting clear of this place, and making camp.”


	17. On the Water

After overnighting beyond the empty city and hunting some game, the four huntresses ride on until they reach a lake which reaches almost out of sight to the south, fully clear of the forests now. They also find a fishing village whose people ply the lake in swift, durable vessels. According to Vanasha, these are the Dlesam, a small and insular Tribe.

Ditching their mounts again – there’d be no better way to confuse and alarm strangers – the party make the last couple of kilometres on foot. There are notably fewer machines here – over the last few days they have had to deal with a handful of Scrappers, a pair of Ravagers and a flock of marauding Glinthawks, as well as frightening off Chargers and Broadheads. Not so much out here. Presumably the Dlesam are thorough in dealing with threats.

Rey’s glad of it – the Glinthawks are a particular pain in the backside, especially when she doesn’t dare to just pull one out of the sky and put her lightsaber through it. Though it stands to reason that the same Tribe who patrol their territory that rigorously won’t take too kindly to human intruders either.

A little way out from the village, they’re spotted, and a dozen Dlesam come and wait at the settlement’s edge. They’re not presenting the fierce face that the Nora do to outsiders, but Aloy says they have the same kind of wariness that the Banuk tend to have, up in the Cut.

Rey studies them. These people seem to be somewhere in between the Carja and Nora in terms of how they dress. Some machine parts, appropriated for armour. She’d say they’re like the Oseram, only the Oseram prefer to melt down and forge their metal anew. The Dlesam favour leather over fur, chainmail or anything woven, and don’t go for anything half as revealing as Carja garb. The huntress’ relatively scanty outfits come in for a mildly disapproving look.

A burly man with a short, clipped beard detaches himself from the group and approaches. “What business do outsiders have in Dlesam lands?”

Vanasha steps forward and answers him. “Nothing that’ll inconvenience you, I expect. We’re hunting machines after incursions into our lands.” She studies the group of people watching them. “I mean, you don’t look like the type to control machines and sic them on other Tribes. And I’ve never known Dlesam to look for a fight.”

The man doesn’t share her humour. “Certainly not. Equally, we don’t see Carja and call the tidings good. Might I ask your name, you who see fit to jest about such matters?”

“Vanasha.” She reels off the names of the other three. Aloy gets a frown when her Nora identity is revealed, though there’s also an appreciative look in the man’s eye when the Battle of the Alight is mentioned.

“So this is the Anointed Seeker of the savage eastern Tribe,” he rumbles. The expressions of the other Dlesam turn curious, even reverent.

“We prefer to be called the Nora,” Aloy reproves him brusquely. “But yes, I am the Seeker and some call me the Anointed as well.”

“And what do we call you?” Vanasha finishes.

“Bursk,” the man replies. “Now this begins to make sense. Your coming – or the coming of someone, at any rate – was foretold by our Ironreaders.”

“Ironreaders?” Aloy asks Talanah, for both her and Rey’s sake.

“Priests of sorts.”

“Though I might have expected it myself. We’ve seen machines on the move, in small numbers but not following their usual paths. There are others south and east of our borders. The Ironreaders say, seek no strife with them outside the Granting-” that must be the name for their territory, Aloy guesses “-and I will not go against their word. But,” and his hand tightens on the axe in his hand. “I spy a ring closing forming around us, and I like it not.”

“I’m surprised that you’re still here, then,” Aloy says. “This place hardly looks defensible.”

“It’s our last day here for a while,” Bursk curtly tells her. “As chief, I’m taking us back to Glintrock today. That’s a stronghold, south of the lake. Two days’ ride.”

“And presumably much less by boat,” Aloy says. Bursk has carefully left it unsaid, but she’ll happily seize on the opportunity. “What will buy us passage?”

They embark on the largest of the vessels heading home across the lake, after some haggling. Like the Carja once were, the Dlesam are less than pleased to welcome a Nora savage and what they assume is another one, plus two Carja dilettantes. Fortunately, like the Carja, they’re open to being persuaded with certain rare trinkets. The lens from a Ripclaw, for example.

This is a large vessel, bigger than any Aloy has seen on the Daybrink and made as much from metal as wood. The Dlesam propel it with broad oars, fast enough to outrun a Snapmaw, and a few men patrol its edge with spears.

“Our menfolk watch the lake, and hunt down machines which appear,” Bursk tells Aloy. “The Cauldrons issue them from time to time, so we may never slacken in our vigil.” Which might explain in part why he hasn’t gone against the guidance of his priests, and sent hunters into the surrounding area. Hidebound is her immediate impression of the Dlesam – only deepened by the emphasis on “menfolk”.

Bursk has some cursory questions, but doesn’t go as far as Aloy expected. After a while, he declares that they will speak in the morning, with his Ironreaders in attendance. “Tonight, there is an inn you can stay at.” Plainly, in his mind, they will be gone the next day. And with that he goes below, to keep an eye on the oarsmen.

Aloy finds a section of the deck which doesn’t look to be busy, and where the smell of fish isn’t too strong. She’s keenly aware that it’s best to not get in the way. They’ve managed to pay for passage, but she’s aware that they’re not particularly welcome. More than that, they need to be on their best behaviour in order to get bed and board tonight, to say nothing of information or help going forward.

“Is everyone but the Oseram this frosty to your people?” Rey mutters, joining Aloy on deck. “I wish they’d had something small and fast we could’ve hired. I miss having a speeder to hand.”

“Speeder?”

“Bit like a bike-” she sees Aloy’s bemused expression. “I mean a vehicle, like a cart which pulls itself. It flies low to the ground and you ride it like a Strider, only you don’t need to Override it.”

“Ooh, I like the sound of that. So I can hop on behind you, put my arms around you…”

Rey frowns a little. “On that note, do you think we’re getting looks? I mean, the two of us.”

Aloy follows her eyes across a few members of the crew. She thinks she detects some disapproving looks. “Hard to say if it’s more than just them not liking outsiders. Though maybe best not to flaunt it until we’re out of town.”

“Well that just makes me want to make you scream really, really loudly all night when we get into town. Just to spite them.”

Mirth flashes in Aloy’s eyes. “You’ve got more mischief in you than I’d have thought.”

“On that note,” Rey adds, looking around to make sure their two Carja compatriots aren’t in earshot. “Is it me, or are Talanah and Vanasha…”

“Fucking?” Aloy thinks for a moment. “I’m not sure they are yet, but give it another day or two. Especially if they’ve been overhearing us.” She sees the look on Rey’s face and laughs softly. “You didn’t imagine anything escapes the ears of the Sunhawk, did you?”

“Well, let’s try and do better with the Dlesam.” Rey leans on the rail, pondering for a few seconds before she speaks. “So the Dlesam think there’s an issue, but can’t or won’t spare the toil to investigate it. Why?”

Aloy can only offer possibilities. “Belief. Material constraints. Fear of weakening themselves unnecessarily. The Tenakth aren’t all that far away,” she adds, nodding westward. “No one wants to look weak when they’re within reach of such warlike people. And yes, when we’ve talked about how it would go if the rest of the Galaxy came to our work, I’ve wondered about what the hell would happen with them.”

“Future problems, I guess,” Rey says. “Hopefully we can get out and find what’s happening with the present one, though. We can track with our Focuses, right?” she asks.

Aloy nods, smiling approvingly. “You’re thinking like a Hunter now. My thoughts are, we speak with Bursk and his Ironreaders tomorrow, see what they tell us. But most likely, we’re going to need to trace the routes they’re taking.”

Momentarily she’s distracted by some leaping fish. The lake looks to be full of life, but not machines. The Dlesam hunters must patrol it thoroughly, she thinks, keeping Snapmaws away. The Carja and Shadow Carja were happy to let the Daybrink teem with them in comparison, a line of defence for both polities.

Then she shakes herself out of the reverie and continues. “Machines will respond to changes in the environment, but generally they’ll keep to the same locations and won’t migrate. You get some exceptions,” she concedes. “Redmaw springs to mind, as it roved all over the place. But this sounds different.”

“Like a different kind of mind is directing it,” Rey says gravely. “As we thought back at Noon Kiln. Hopefully we can figure out what that mind wants, and what it really is. I don’t like this uncertainty.”

“Then let’s just rest for now,” Aloy says. “And maybe get ourselves out of the glare, else I’m gonna burn up quickly.”

The rest of the journey across the long lake, which the Dlesam identify as the Skymirror, takes up the entire afternoon and finally gives the women a chance to rest below deck. Aloy finds herself slumping down in a corner of the hold with the other three. It’s a quiet spot, where they can’t get in anyone’s way.

“So, Vanasha,” Rey begins, fingers drumming on the hilt of her lightsaber. “Anything you can tell us about the Dlesam?”

Privately, Aloy reflects that this leg of the journey has been good for looking Rey into the group properly. The four of them… not exactly against the world, but only able to truly rely on each other out here.

Vanasha smiles, enjoying the chance to hold forth with her knowledge. Rey suspects it might be a minor vice for the spy, who must so often guard her insights. “Mostly, it’s just more of what you’ve seen. They’re insular; I’ve seen about as many in the Sundom as I have Nora, which is to say a handful. Their culture’s not too dissimilar.”

“Except that they actively keep their patch clear of machines,” Aloy chips in.

“Oh yes, and not just by hunting.” Vanasha leans forward, hands on her elbows. “The Dlesam responded to the Derangement by shaping the land, altering the course of machine herds to as to win themselves respite. It’s not perfect, but their settlements are small enough for them to get away with it.”

Rey tilts her head just a little when she looks at Vanasha. “I guess it’s less doable with Meridian.”

“Indeed. So we guard and hunt, which the Dlesam also to have to do. They farm as well – that’s the other big thing that sets them apart from the Nora.”

“And these Ironreaders. What’s their story?”

“Well, they’re the ones who track and watch the machines,” Vanasha says. “They don’t presume to lead them – so they’ll tell you while they bemoan the Banuk Shaman with their blue wires.”

The same thought that Aloy’s had had plainly occurred to Talanah. “I guess that makes it a doubly sensible move not to arrive on the backs of Chargers.”

“ _Oh yes_ ,” comes the reply with a grin. Vanasha sits back and folds her arms. “We’re probably best off hiking, while we’re in their lands.”

“Assuming that we’re just passing through,” Aloy puts in. “We’re sure they couldn’t be involved in this?” That uncanny feeling she discussed with Rey, that something is different about this phenomenon to Hades and Hephaestus’ depredations, rears its head again. “There’s nothing likely to change their views on using machines, is there?”

“Not that I can think of. If they know that the Shadow Carja were doing it, that would only put them off more.”

“Good,” Aloy says, venturing over to a porthole. Sticking her head out, she spies a settlement in the distance, beyond the glimmer of sunlight on the water. Low but wide, as far as she can tell, squat buildings clustered behind thick walls.

“Looks like a Werak in the Cut,” she says, “only built more to last.” Coming back to the others, she remarks “And hopefully rather less bare-bones.”

Vanasha winks. “Absolutely. You’ll be relieved to hear,” she adds, “that while in some ways they seem like Banuk, their view on comfort is more like that of the Sun Carja and Oseram.”

“Just as well,” Talanah says, shifting a little on a sack of pelts. “Much more of that, and I’d be short of a backside. I don’t know how you stand it, Aloy.”

“You say that,” Aloy responds sat next to Rey. “But I’ve known you to hike to the very edge of the Sundom on the trail of a machine.”

“Yes, but my feet are used to that. My rather more delicate ass, on the other hand, prefers a cushioned stool in the Lodge. The back of a Charger has been less kind.” She stretches, grumbling. “I’m set to be sore for days.”

“Perhaps, then,” Vanasha purrs, reclining on a convenient sack of hides and treating Talanah to an indulgent smile, “I could tempt you to a discreet massage when we find ourselves some accommodation?”

Talanah leans forward, eyes alight. “Well, _that_ sounds rather overt for a spy…”

Rey’s eyes find Aloy and her eyebrows flit up in amusement. Aloy tries to discreetly signal back that she _had_ said it was only a matter of time. Then, content that Talanah and Vanasha are sufficiently lost in each other, she leans over and whispers in her ear. “Before you get too excited, we’re gonna have to be quiet ourselves tonight.”

There does turn out to be a delicious edge of transgression to their coupling at the inn that night, all whispers and stifled moans. To give each other pleasure just next door to people who might consider it the very lowest sin, and for those people not to have the slightest clue.

Talanah and Vanasha are in the next room. If anything is going on there, they’re keeping quiet as well. Which is only to be expected, and Aloy would only consider it a distraction in any case.

She curls up behind Rey in their little bed, moving with her, nipping and kissing her neck. She gently toys with her breasts with one hand, as the fingers of the other spiral around Rey’s clit. Rey silences her cries the same way she did when listening to Aloy, biting a pillow so Aloy’s reward is just the feeling of how her body quivers, tenses and releases.

And then, naturally, Rey rolls over to face Aloy, kisses her, and repays the favour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And if you want to know what Talanah and Vanasha were doing: [click here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28878669).


	18. Dealing with the Dlesam

The next morning, they rise, buy breakfast from the innkeeper, and pull up chairs for Vanasha and Talanah. The spy looks as enigmatic as ever to Rey’s eyes and her feelings are similarly hard to read with the Force, but the Sunhawk has a certain _glow_ about her.

Aloy catches Rey’s gaze and her eyebrow darts up surreptitiously for a moment. But she’s quick to start a conversation before the other two can suspect anything/a thing. Assuming, of course, that they care that Rey and Aloy know.

Her first question is for Vanasha, regarding the locals they’re due to meet again. “So about the Ironreaders, and more generally, the Chief’s inner circle... any sensitivities we ought to mind?”

“Treat them like you do the Banuk, more or less,” Vanasha says, setting about her food with knife and fork, “only don’t let them hear that. If you can, avoid anything that sounds too much like looking for a fight. The Dlesam don’t think highly of strutting Carja hunters.” She lets slip a warm smile when Talanah makes a face. “They work around the ways of Machines and keep hunting grounds as much for resources as sport.”

“I was wondering about that,” Rey pipes up. She nods at the walls. “I feel like I’m seeing fewer obvious machine parts here, both in the decorations and the weapons and armour. But how _does_ a Tribe keep machines from its settlements?”

“Well, I think Talanah can tell you that best.” Vanasha motions to the Sunhawk, who nods.

“Ironreaders pride themselves on being trackers, on understanding a machine better than anyone else. They don’t tend to take a hand in the hunt,” she says, “but they guide others to the perfect place for a kill. They learn where different machines go and why, and they use that to redirect them. The Dlesam clear new paths at the edge of their territory and watch to see if the machines will follow those.”

“Not the way that Nora or Banuk would approve of,” Aloy muses.

Vanasha leans forward, picking up her cup again. “Well, seeing as we’re not in Nora or Banuk territory, let’s stick to only asking the questions we must. And eat up now. Don’t want to be late.”

Then they’re off to meet with the chief, heading out into the town of Stonehaven. Children playing in the streets stop to follow them, gazing curiously – but always at a safe distance, even the older ones. Most of the adults they see say nothing, even those who they met and made the trip across the boat with yesterday.

That’s different, Rey thinks, though she has to remind herself that the Nora only became more trusting a short while ago. The Dlesam probably aren’t much more insular, and they haven’t had the recent shared struggle against the Eclipse. Still, after the endlessly curious people of Meridian, it’s a definite shift, as is the quiet in town. The only real noise comes from buildings close to the water, where fish are being skinned and filleted.

Looking more widely afield, she notes the landscape around them. There are foothills and then mountains to the east and west, leaving only a few narrow valleys to the south. It suggests a rather sheltered existence, as far as anyone’s life on Horizon can be sheltered. And fortunate at that, with neighbours like the Tenakth - and historically the Carja, back when they seized people from nearby Tribes to die for their god.

She keeps that history in mind when they reach the Chief’s house, where they surrender their weapons to enter. Only reluctantly does she part with her lightsaber. Then they step in.

Bursk’s hut is broad and solid, walled with rough stone and hung with hunting trophies – but only a few, Rey notes, compared to the Nora buildings she saw. The chieftain sits on a heavy oak chair, attended by what look to be his most experienced hunters and his Ironreaders. Even here, he dresses much like the rest of the Dlesam, except for a circlet of beaten copper around his forehead, studded with bits of polished glass.

“Our visitors,” he gruffly declaims when they enter, gesturing to his advisors. “We welcome in Aloy of the Nora, Talanah and Vanasha of the Carja-” Rey sees a curious look on Talanah’s face as she’s introduced without her family name “-and Rey of the Jed Tribe… of whom my most learned advisors know nothing.” Is that ominous tone in his voice meant for her?

Vanasha knows the most suitable words, and thanks Bursk on behalf of her little group. It earns a curt nod, which is probably as good as they’re going to get here.

“Well, now we’ll see if my indulgence should stretch any further.” He motions to a woman stood to his left. “Etrek, the highest of our Ironreaders. She has questions for you.”

Until now, Rey hasn’t been able to pick out the Ironreaders, they dress so similarly to their fellow Dlesam. Now she sees them together, she can pick out the ornamentation they wear - the few obvious machine parts she’s seen among the Tribe. Lenses, hung on lengths of wire, gleam against the dark leather of their clothes.

Etrek only wears a little more than the rest; a lens sits upon her brow, over a band of cloth. A symbolic third eye, Rey muses. Her own two rove across the Carja garb which the four of them wear, and it doesn’t look like an approving gaze.

“Bursk has brought you to our village, that we might give you a hearing,” she says. Her voice is a harsh, dry sound. “That does not mean that you have been granted the right to roam any further. That will depend very much upon your purpose. Had you not the Seeker of the Nora among you, we would not even have extended that courtesy.”

“What Etrek means to say,” Bursk rumbles, “is that we require you to state in full your business here. When we met yesterday, you spoke of machines emerging from near our lands and attacking yours. Am I to expect a punitive expedition from the Carja?” He doesn’t raise his voice with those last words, but his tone becomes darker and his eyes glint fiercely. The Dlesam remember the Red Raids of years ago, that much is clear.

Talanah, used to dealing with the brittle egos of the Carja nobility, takes the lead. “Sun-King Avad wishes nothing of the sort, and we would not be party to such a ploy. Our purpose is as we have stated, and we’ve no desire to interfere with your Tribe.”

“Then what do you seek?” Etrek asks.

“Information,” Vanasha says. “Anything you can tell us of the machines we hunt, and where we might find them.”

“Then you ask of the Forsaken Hills,” another Ironreader says sharply, looking to his Chief angrily. “They mean to intrude, Chief!”

Uproar ensues, and only just stops short of weapons being drawn.

“We shun it,” Etrek says bluntly. “There is malice on those hills, some leaving of the Ancients. It only made itself known a few years ago, but we Dlesam know well enough not to venture into those hills.”

“They do sound a little like your people,” Rey murmurs in Aloy’s ear.

“And how does that malice manifest?” Vanasha asks, helpfully masking Rey’s words.

Etrek frowns at any questioning, even though Vanasha takes pains to mask any scepticism in her voice. “It does not make itself known to the eye nor the ear, but do not doubt that it is there. It is a chill in the blood and a shadow just out of sight. It is ceaseless, remorseless...” Her jaw clenches as she steps forward, and her voice takes on an even more ominous tone. “None who venture there are ever seen again. Lone hunters, errant foragers, war parties… we learned to leave it untouched Instead, we chose to ward against it. As it is, the Derangement gave us enough difficulties to be getting on with.“

“And the Carja,” adds the other Ironreader who spoke. He glowers at Vanasha and Talanah in particular.

Aloy pointedly pays him no attention. “But what about the new machines?” she asks, directing her words at Etrek and Bursk. She doesn’t quite make it a demand, but her words have a stern edge. “They might not be actively menacing your Tribe, but if the Carja or _worse_ , the Tenakth began to suspect that you were in any way complicit... It could easily cause you even more problems.”

Getting massacred, enslaved and possibly eaten by the Tenakth certainly would constitute a fairly large problem, Rey thinks. But she holds that thought, and watches the Dlesam react. Some look sceptical, even truculent at the notion of trouble which they can’t simply weather. Others, however, look to be seriously considering the idea.

Bursk simply scowls. “We’re not the Carja or Tenakth, with the strength and appetite to make war upon others. Certainly we are not about to readily expose ourselves. Our strength is to protect. The writ of iron bids us that things be borne, and so we _bear_ them. And yet, you raise a threatening prospect in turn.” A scowl tugs at his scarred, bearded face. “One we cannot easily disregard.”

“Should we even permit outsiders to cross the Forsaken’s threshold?” another Dlesam speaks up. He is a tall, sinewy man with a livid scar showing on one side of his beard. Bursk’s right-hand, a fighting hand. “It punishes our intrusions so.” He rolls up a sleeve, exposing an old but still striking scar which runs the length of his forearm, and brandishes it at them. “What will it make of those who are not even Dlesam?”

“Look at it this way,” Rey says. “If we go, we’ll be taking the chance for you. If whatever’s up there has wits, it’ll see we’re not of your Tribe. Better than risking your own or sitting here waiting to see if it ever gets aggressive – and based on our experience, it _will_ get aggressive.”

Etrek comes close, examining her keenly. “You speak as though different minds drove these machines.”

Rey doesn’t back down. “That’s exactly what we mean. You heard of the Buried Shadow in the north, which sent an army of machines against Meridian?” She sees the flicker of recognition in Etrek’s eyes and presses on. “This is something very like it, but more insidious.”

Vanasha steps up, speaking in a low, authoritative voice. “The Sun-King of the Carja seeks only to eradicate the machine threat. We’re still hurting from what the Eclipse did to us so believe me, we’ve no desire to pick a fight with you. Help us, you’ll be making a friend and keeping your people safe. Otherwise, you’re storing up trouble for yourselves and everyone else.”

It’s a risky ploy, to speak so boldly and bluntly to a Tribe’s leader. But Vanasha has faced down proud men before - Rey’s got Aloy to vouch for that. And sure enough, Bursk looks to be weighing her words carefully.

She pushes again herself. “Whatever is in those hills is building to something. It’s taken people from settlements in the Sundom. For what purpose, we don’t know. But it will want more, and perhaps, when it looks at you, it sees easy prey. If you let us investigate, you might just avert a disaster for everyone in these lands.”

Silence follows her words. Every eye turns to Bursk, brow furrowed as he strokes his beard.

“It is true, we can ill afford an attack,” he eventually concedes. “Especially if what you have said of these new, fiercer machines is true.” For a good half-minute, he is quiet, the whole room hanging on his words. “Very well, we will permit you to venture into the Forsaken. I will not be dissuaded of this, Vort,” he adds in a raised voice when the tall man begins to protest.

Vanasha bows her head gratefully, and the other three follow. “Thank you, Chief. We’ll intrude on your settlements as little as possible, and endeavour to avoid any machine herds - so long as they aren’t this new breed.”

“And all we’ll need for that is an idea of the area,” Talanah adds.

“We can spare a couple,” Vort says - grudgingly, but now his Chief has spoken, he’ll go obediently along. He motions for a hunter to step up with two maps, unfurling one to show to the women. 

Rey has to resist the urge to activate her Focus and scan it already, noting the glyphs written on there - at least those she can recognise. “The Cauldron’s to the east, then.”

Vort grunts his acknowledgement. “You’ll want the road to Flintwatch,” he says, tracing a road up the outermost settlement. That’ll be a day’s hike, then probably the next morning up into the Forsaken Hills, depending...”

“Depending on the machines there?” Aloy asks, arms folded.

“Exactly. You’ll find Lancehorns and Glinthawks aplenty up there, and swifter, fiercer things too.”

“Then we’d best stock up and move on quickly.” Rey can feel the relief flow off Aloy, as her partner bows her head to the Chief in thanks. “The sooner we’re on our way, the sooner we can leave you in peace.” She pauses for a moment though, regarding him carefully. “I’d still recommend keeping a watch on the hills, and your hunters close. Based on what we’ve seen, you might need them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Thanks to imaginova for some beta-reading and help with figuring out this chapter XD](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginnova)


	19. Into the Forsaken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the promised map, made on Inkarnate!

Mist hangs thickly over the Forsaken Hills as the huntresses cross the Holding, which turns out to be the name of the Dlesam land. To Aloy’s eye, they seem rather more foreboding than mere hills ought to be: jagged spurs of flint looming ominously through the vapour, somehow not diminished by the true mountains behind them. Even the light seems to become thinner and colder as they draw close.

The women have changed back into warmer clothes in anticipation of their ascent, and Aloy can’t help but note that there are fewer disgruntled looks coming their way now. She banishes the thought, however. There are more important things to occupy her than gauging the locals’ disapproval. 

Rey’s thoughts are still with the Dlesam to some extent. “I’d hoped we might get a guide out of that. Or at least someone who would want to find out what this _malice_ on their doorstep is.” She kicks a stone off the path. “I don’t know whether to call them complacent or cowed.”

“Based on what we’ve seen,” Vanasha says with a tolerant look toward Rey, “they’ve plenty of reason not to want to poke around these hills. The Tenakth and the old Carja alike preyed on the Dlesam. Between neighbours like those and the Derangement, you learn not to poke something dangerous unless you need to.”

“Just look at what they call it,” says Aloy, gesturing to the glyph on the map. “The Holding. Not the Sacred Land, Sundom or Ban-Ur, the land which a Tribe holds to as the best. It’s not the Oseram’s Claim either.”

Rey nods. “They call it the Holding because it’s what they can hang onto, in the face of everything else.”

Talanah chimes in. “Being allowed to roam at all is about as good as we could hope for, in all honestly. My old Hawk, Tarkas, used to talk about hunting on the border, back when Carja regularly came this far south. He could never get close to the Dlesam lands without them turning him away.” She looks up again at the hills and sighs. “I rather miss riding machines now.”

“So fickle,” Vanasha laughs, putting an arm around her waist. Then she and Talanah look at Rey and Aloy, and with a little rush of amusement, Aloy realises that she’s beaming. “Yes, I suppose you worked that out already.”

“What with the way you’ve been flirting?” Aloy smirks. “It never once crossed our minds.”

The spy concedes with a deep, hearty laugh. Then, as she surveys the landscape around them, she voices the thought that’s been lingering on Aloy’s mind. “There’s a real scarcity of machines here. I see a few over there-,” she nods to a herd of Grazers, “-and there were those Striders a while back. Other than that, though, these diversion tactics the Dlesam use seem to work, at least well enough for now.”

Aloy also thinks that she can see the careful shaping of the land at work here. There are paths cut into rock here and there, alongside a few watchtowers akin to those of the Embrace. From what Vanasha has said, the Dlesam’s response to any intrusion by a really dangerous machine is to use these same paths to isolate it and then send their hunters. 

Which means they’re not totally complacent, at least. Then she chides herself for that thought. Of course they’re not complacent. No culture endures out here if they’re complacent. Rey’s pointed out that constant edge of wariness that unites the Tribes she’s seen so far. Out in the wide Galaxy, she says, things can be quite different.

Nonetheless, Aloy’s uneasy about the Dlesam’s position. “They’re used to being out of the way,” she says. “But if this new machine mind launches a coordinated attack… I’ve seen what that can do to our own peoples, even the Banuk. I fear for the Dlesam.”

“Is there a way we can find out what it’s planning?” Rey asks. “Something with the Focus?”

Aloy nods. “I reckon so. When I performed overrides on other Cauldrons, it got me information on how Hephaestus changed their function. When I went into Epsilon, the one it built in the Cut, I even heard it speak.”

“And you drove it out?” Rey prompts.

“Ah.” Aloy’s held off from this subject, and a sharp pang of sorrow flares in her heart when she speaks again, lower and quieter. “I went in with two Banuk companions. One of them, a woman named Ourea, used my spear to banish Hephaestus, but at the cost of her life...”

That gets her sharp looks from the other three.

“I do hope you have an idea of how we can do this without one of us having to die,” Vanasha drily remarks. Her expression softens a moment later to the same sympathetic expression Rey and Talanah wear. “Sorry, Aloy. That sounds like a cruel loss.”

“It’s alright,” Aloy says. Then she turns her thoughts back to the question. In truth, she is rather hoping that Rey’s understanding of tech from her Offworld upbringing will help her find a solution, but that’s an issue to broach only if they need to. 

Failing that, she does have another solution: “Rey has an Override cylinder, similar to the one I use with my spear. Between the two of us, we should have a chance of breaking the safeguards of any device in the Cauldron. We can learn the origin of this intelligence and, more importantly, shut the thing right down like we did Hades.”

Rey quirks an eyebrow at her. “You could’ve led with that.”

Aloy dips her chin sheepishly. “Fair point.”

An incident-free hike brings them, shortly after midday, to Flintwatch. It appears to have begun life as a cluster of watchtowers which someone raised walls around, and then finally supposed that this might actually be a place in which to live. It’s a settlement because it’s useful, rather than because it’s pleasant.

The inhabitants are suitably watchful for the ominous place in which they live; they are the ones who are meant to keep an eye out for marauding machines which might slip into the Holding. As soon as they’re close enough to make out individual people, they can see men moving around on the walls. A little closer, a shout goes up, and they are greeted with the glint of nocked arrows.   
  
The four women go still, hands up.   
  
Talanah, the unofficial leader of the group, whips out their writ - glyphs which Bursk made on a sheath of paper, giving them the Chief’s permission.

Eventually, a small party of spear and axe-carrying hunters approaches to verify who the intruders are. They regard the writ and the women with a sceptical eye, but the lead hunter takes it and scrutinises it thoroughly. The uncomfortable silence stretches out further as he hands it to an Ironreader to study as well. Eventually, however, it passes muster and the travellers are allowed in.

Flinthaven houses a few dozen people, almost all of them hunters or crafters who make their living by equipping the hunters, although there are farms nearby. There looks to be enough space left over for the farmers to take refuge here in times of trouble. Aloy is reminded quite strongly of Mother’s Watch. The place is similarly hushed for its size, she thinks. But then, sitting in the shadow of the Forsaken Hills, perhaps that’s inevitable.

They’ve still got a few machine parts to trade, and the shards net them a decent meal of venison and vegetables, as they explain how a Nora Brave, two Carja huntresses and a Jedi warrior have come to explore the Forsaken Hills. But they move on quickly, not least to alleviate the Dlesam’s discomfort with them.

“You’d do well to halt short of the Forsaken’s bounds, before nightfall,” one of the Ironreaders advises them. “The Hills grow unquiet. Clamour and shriek roll down the slopes to disturb us... And when you venture up, though you go with Bursk’s permission, _tread lightly_.”

Aloy and Talanah offer assurances that they will be the very embodiment of caution, but nonetheless they’re glad to pass on from the town.

Beyond the fastness, they begin to spy more dangerous machines. Scrappers and Sawteeth prowl the grasslands above, and the women cautiously skirt them as they proceed – except for those which are too close to the old paths. If they need to retreat in a hurry, Talanah points out, it won’t be a great help to have potentially hostile machines in their path.

Rather ominously, they find some fallen machines along the way - or rather the remains of those, felled by hunters other than humans.

“See this?” Talanah asks, raising a metal plate for the others to look at. It’s white, the colour of an ordinary machine. “No hunter’s weapon I’ve seen makes a mark like this. These look like…”

“Claws,” Aloy says. “Could’ve been made by a Sawtooth or Ravager. And then that damage at the edges. Scrappers? Glinthawks?”

“One of those two.” The Sunhawk shakes her head. “I’ve never seen this before.”

Rey hunkers down next to them. “So, our enemy may well have its machines attacking the usual sort.”

Aloy nods, uncomfortable at this new development. She’s only known machines to fight others of their kind when overridden. “If I had to guess, it’s doing it for resources.”

Talanah seems to be thinking the same thing. “At least,” she says thoughtfully, “this entity doesn’t seem to take over any machine in its path, like Hades did.”

“Not yet,” Aloy replies. There’s an uneasy thought that she keeps turning over. “But if it got itself an Override unit, that could change.”

“All the more reason to deal with it, then.”

Aloy clenches her jaw, and her hold on her spear tightens. “True enough.”

There’s no sense going into a Cauldron tired, or in camping too close. There’s already _something_ in the air, Rey thinks. It reminds her in some way of being on Exegol, or the cave on Ach-To, but no, that can’t be it. This just feels like that, she tells herself, and turns her mind to practical matters.

Here, in the hilly country, there are fast-flowing rivers where no machine has any interest in being near, confined as they are by steep gorges. One of those provides a camping spot for the night.

“Normally I wouldn’t advise this,” Talanah says, “but we’re out of the rainy season and I see no sign of the river rising tonight.”

Still, they pitch their two tents as far up the bank as they’ll go, and set plenty of traps on the riverside path which led them here. Nothing will take them unawares, that’s for sure.

They feel relaxed enough to set a fire and cook some haunches of rabbit and boar, Rey snuggling up to Aloy. Talanah and Vanasha aren’t quite so overt, but the Sunhawk’s hand on the spy’s thigh doesn’t go unnoticed by their friends.

When they adjourn to the tents, however, Rey and Aloy can hear Talanah and Vanasha fucking before they’re even got themselves undressed. They exchange a look which says that now there can be no doubt at all, and get to work distracting each other with their own enjoyment.

The next morning they trek up into the hills, following Bursk’s map towards the Cauldron. The early morning is dark and chilly, and now the hiking does approach being arduous. It’s no Bitter Climb, as Aloy puts it, but the long-disused upland paths are steep and tricky. There aren’t any of the black and red machines barring the way, to their surprise. Until, that is, they reach the top of the climb.

As they near the entrance, they hear a heavy, clanking tread, moving steadily back and forth in front of the gateway. A large machine is patrolling up ahead, and Rey can hear a characteristic throb of power even at this distance. 

When they reach the crest of the hill, they see it. “Ripclaw,” Rey says grimly. 

“So that’s the one that nearly did for you, huh?” Vanasha asks.

Aloy nods, before she shares a fleeting look with Rey. The other two don’t know the half of it.

Talanah cocks an eyebrow in mild surprise. “It doesn’t look as substantial as old Redmaw.”

“I got careless,” Aloy confesses. “And it _is_ rather quicker than a Thunderjaw.” 

The Sunhawk’s piercing gaze travels along the Ripclaw’s length again, and she nods appreciatively. “Then we’ll want to set some traps, hit it hard at the start. Those are cannons on its flanks, right?”

“Uh huh.” Aloy holsters her spear and reaches for her tripcaster. “We’re going to want to hit it hard but first, let’s prepare the ground. We didn’t get that luxury at Noon Kiln, and I want to make it count.”

“No argument.” Vanasha begins to prepare some traps. “How close do you think we can get without angering it?” They’re about fifty metres away, and with the steep incline of the hill at their backs, they’ll want to creep forward and stake out some ground to fight on.

Talanah tilts her head thoughtfully. “Give it twenty metres.” She draws her bow and a tearblast arrow, covering the other three while they creep forward. Vanasha lays traps, Rey and Aloy set down wires. Good and thorough, giving them room to manoeuvre. It takes time though. Twice the Ripclaw catches a glimpse of movement, and they have to flatten themselves in the long grass, hardly daring to breathe until it reverts to its patrol. 

At this range, it’s a genuine danger for the machine to trip the wires and set off the bomb traps around them. Rey finds herself wondering if she could use the Force to ward them from the blasts. Mercifully, it doesn’t look like she’ll have to learn today.

Eventually the ground is prepared. Now they’re back to bows and Vanasha’s sling, and as they all take aim. She gives the count: “Five… four… three.. two.. _one!_ ” 

Their shots arc through the air, impacting hard against the Ripclaw’s armour. There’s the telltale _bwaaarm_ that signals Talanah’s tearblast hitting home, right where the cannon is mounted on one side. The actual explosion rings out just as Talanah’s bomb strikes true , and the result is a _bah-boom_ that rocks the Ripclaw and sends chunks of armour flying from its flanks - along with that cannon. 

And now Talanah and Vanasha get to see just how fast a Ripclaw can move. It roars, eyes immediately crimson, and surges forward in a furious charge, the other cannon opening up in a torrent of blue light. The huntresses dive and roll away, then run. They turn to fire again as the Ripclaw’s charge carries it into the tripwires. They explode and douse the machine with fire and earth, the bomb traps following suit moments later. 

It’s a hefty one-two punch that robs the Ripclaw’s attack of momentum, and the huntresses are quick to exploit it. They draw and fire again. More arrows strike the dented armour and crack it, or tear strips off. The Ripclaw only seems more pissed off by that, and lunges at the nearest hunter - Talanah.

Rey ignites her lightsaber and springs into range, because although Talanah has thrown herself clear of the gaping jaws, the Ripclaw’s clawed hand is ripping through the air toward her. The yellow blade moves in a crescent of fierce light, striking true. The offending arm crashes to earth, just short of the startled Talanah.

“Move!” Aloy and Talanah yell it in unison, and Rey and Talanah roll away as the heavy metal tail crashes down. A searing blue volley from the Ripclaw’s remaining gun chews up the ground, but this time Vanasha lands a bomb from her sling which blasts the cannon apart.

“Yes!” Rey yells in fierce elation, before she can stop herself. Aloy follows up, a hardpoint punching clean through one of Ripclaw’s ocular lenses.

“To the gate!” she yells. Which makes sense, now the Ripclaw’s come past them. Rey draws her tripcaster and throws down another couple of wires, enough to stagger and slow the Ripclaw when it follows them towards the Cauldron.

Still it pursues them, snapping with its sharp fangs, slashing with its claws and whipping its tail through the air with bone-shattering force.

But by this point, Rey and Talanah have got clear, and they fire back. There are plenty of gaps in the monster’s armour, and now their arrows strike its metal heart with such force that the Ripclaw reels and screams. They’ve picked their ground well, given themselves enough space that no matter who the machine goes for, at least two of them will be clear and able to fight.

It’s not the quickest fight, but it does end cleanly for them. At last, the Ripclaw staggers and falls, right by the Cauldron entrance. Aloy deftly leaps atop it to plunge her spear through the remaining red eye and into its adamantine skull.

And then the only sound is the echo of the crunch and her bark of anger, ringing from the rock walls.

“I’ll say this, Aloy,” Talanah smiles wryly, hands on hips as she regains her breath, “I entirely understand how one of those could’ve given you trouble. Nasty bastard.”

Aloy nods, levelling her spear at a device low on the door. There’s a high-pitched electronic noise, and the metal panels pull back in a way that’s both elegant and disquieting. The moment’s almost organic, Rey thinks. Perhaps too much so.

“So, ladies... here you go.” Aloy gestures, but she is unable to keep the hesitation out of her voice. “This is what a Cauldron looks like.”

They all look at the space beyond the looming, triangular gate. The usual blue light that identifies these structures and machines is absent. Instead, a malevolent red glow illuminates its architecture, amid the rugged stone and sparse greenery. It’s an inescapably intimidating sight.

“I know that shade of red,” Rey murmurs, almost absentmindedly. Aloy gives her an inquiring look, but she shakes her head and says, “Nothing. Just a... coincidence.” Those words aren’t as reassuring as she’d like them to be, however, and an uneasy silence descends on the four.

To take her own mind off it, she studies the gateway. She’s vaguely reminded of the first time she saw a First Order structure. It’s that same uncanny symmetry and neatness. 

“You really want us to go in there?” Talanah hisses. There’s an unusual amount of worry in her face. “Down into the Metal World?” Even after years in Sunfall, the machines’ domain is a frightening prospect.

Which Rey can understand. “Yeah, it looks pretty alarming.” For people who don’t know that these places were designed by people, who’ve grown up thinking of these places as something totally _other_ , this sight must be even more foreboding.

Still, that’s where they need to go.

“Our adversary put this monster on guard, didn’t it?” Aloy prods the felled Ripclaw with her foot. “That means there’s something in there that it doesn’t want us to reach.”

Vanasha dusts herself off. “Hard to argue with that logic.”

“I’m still inclined to,” Talanah says. “Sun’s light go with us.”

And maybe the Force be with them too, Rey thinks. In they go.


	20. A Reveal

Upon entering the alien structure, Rey activates her Focus, and to her surprise it names the location: **Cauldron Omicron** flashes before her eyes. Beside her, Aloy breathes the same words, before saying, “This looks… less different than I’d expected, in a way.”

Rey doesn’t relax her hold on her bow, and neither do Talanah and Vanasha on theirs. “Different how?”

“Well, Epsilon, the Cauldron Hephaestus built in the Cut, that was built into a different kind of structure. This seems to have started as a normal Cauldron, but then something else took it over. And then… hmm.” Aloy nods ahead.

There’s a Watcher, armoured in sable and red. Off in the gloom beyond, down a smooth metal slope there’s another, and a pair of larger machines. A Sawtooth, and…

“Is that a Snapmaw?” Rey asks, equal parts nervous and curious as she studies the crocodilian machine and notes its quite alarming jaws. 

“Yeah,” Aloy breathes.

Talanah sights along her already nocked arrow, taking aim at one of the cylinders on the Snapmaw’s back. “Now we know that the enemy can create ordinary machines for itself.”

Well, Rey thinks, they don’t know that the new machines aren’t designs of Hephaestus. They seem in keeping after all, and Aloy’s shown her the carcasses of the ancient machines, the Corruptors and Deathbringers. Those didn’t look like anything alive. Ripclaws and Hellmouths look quite unlike those purely mechanical terrors, and much closer to the animalistic forms in front of them now. Which leads Rey to suspect that their unseen adversary is only using Hephaestus’ creations.

For now, her theories can wait. To get any more information, they’ll have to fight.  
  
“Rey,” Talanah says, “have a fire arrow ready. Loose after me, at the cylinder - the Snapmaws carry Blaze there.”

“And who’s got the Watcher?” Rey asks, as she obediently takes aim.

Aloy’s arrow whooshes through the air, strikes the Watcher clean through its solitary eye, and drops it before it can broadcast any signal.

Rey gives her an admiring look. “Nice.”

“Guess that means me on the Sawtooth,” Vanasha says, her voice low, as the quartet draw closer to the incline.

Talanah considers it for a moment. “Yeah. Shock, if you can.”

They draw, waiting for the second Watcher to turn just so. It’s a bigger one, a Redeye, but it doesn’t hold up any better when Aloy gives it three arrows through the lens. Before it even hits the ground, Talanah’s first clutch of arrows have torn the protective casing from the Blaze canister, to which Rey sends her fire arrow.

Vanasha’s shock bomb hits the Sawtooth squarely, followed up by a crackling arrow from Aloy which causes it to seize up. It also means that the Sawtooth is right next to the Snapmaw when that Blaze canister erupts. Furious and aflame, the Sawtooth roars, but Vanasha and Aloy keep up the onslaught.

The Snapmaw, however, has its own contribution to make, and spits freezing gouts of Chillwater at them. But Rey sees the way that exposes a pouch of the stuff under its chin and takes aim at that. They’ve only got a moment or two longer to keep the Sawtooth point in place, and the Snapmaw’s barrage only makes that harder.

Rey’s shot lands, but only damages the sac. Damn. Luckily though, the others have got the same idea. Their hardpoint arrows smack home savagely and the pouch of Chillwater explodes, dousing both machines.

The Sawtooth finally shrugs off the cobwebbing electricity and charges, but its armour is frost-rimed and brittle. Their hail of arrows shatter the plates and punch into the components beneath. A bomb lobbed from Vanasha’s sling strikes a gap in the metal on its flank, blowing out its heart, and that’s that.

Its compatriot, the Snapmaw is still alive. It leaps for them, throwing itself through the air with implausible speed. The huntresses scatter, but Rey, sensing what’s to come, rolls sideways and then springs back, lightsaber snapping to life. Before her enemy can react she brings it down, spearing straight into its head. That ends that fight.

The rest of the opposition they find is easy enough to handle, just more Watchers and a handful of Scrappers. All easily dealt with, when you have four experienced huntresses at your back.

Trickier is the work of traversing the Cauldron. There are vast wheels whose surfaces they must clamber across, crane-limbs and carrier drones which they have to trust to ferry them from place to place. Even for Rey, that’s unsettling; the ships she explored and pillaged in her youth didn’t have any moving parts by the time she got to them.

At times, Aloy goes ahead to use her Focus on a node and summon up a bridge for the others. Those bridges look like tendrils, only adding to the sense that they’re in the innards of some colossal machine. Perhaps like those Metal Devils on the surface, which themselves birthed smaller machines.

“I’ve been into the very heart of enemy territory,” Vanasha says at one point, stroking her chin wryly, “but this feels altogether more…”

“Alien?” Rey supplies. “I agree.” Even by the standards of what she’s seen, it’s deeply strange and unsettling. She wonders if it was humans who designed this place, or Gaia and her subroutines.

As they press further in, even Aloy finds something else that’s unusual to her eyes. Normally, she says Cauldrons are packed full of machinery, tendril-like cables and all the rest. There is plenty of that in this one, but Rey can all but hear her lover’s thoughts. Aloy can’t shake the feeling that there ought to be altogether more. “This place looks sparse,” she says. “I think there ought to be more mechanisms in this space and that.” 

“I agree,” Rey says, looking at the structure with her scavenger’s eyes. She takes hold of Aloy’s wrist; whether it’s more to comfort Aloy or herself, she’s unsure. “Look here. Scrape marks and the floor and walls.”

“And there’s a direction,” Aloy says, tracing the gouge in the metal. “So something was pulled out.”

Rey nods encouragingly at her girlfriend. “There used to be items here - components, I mean - but someone or something has removed them.” She looks away, staring into the gloom as she thinks. 

Suddenly, something flashes in the distance. It’s like lightning, vivid blue, and she flinches. For an instant, it reminds her of Exegol. Of her grandfather. She stamps that thought out. Of all the possible moments, this is really not the time, and she doesn’t like how that thought comes to her now.

“This is the core,” Aloy announces, as if they need telling. Vanasha and Talanah draw close to the edge as well. Hardened as they are, to approach a birthplace of machines is still a rather ominous notion.

As they come close, Rey notices that they’re approaching a horizon line. Beyond that, a hemisphere of shimmering energy - no, a true sphere. And at the heart of it, a machine, tended to by a host of metal limbs.

It’s already huge and heavily built, but as they watch, armoured plates are set in place on its sides by the Cauldron machinery, bulking it out even further. It’s almost as large as a Thunderjaw and even more massive.

“Is that a new one as well?” Vanasha asks.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rey sees Talanah shaking her head. “No, those ones are rare, but I’ve heard of them before. That’s a Speartail.”

“The size of it.” Aloy shakes her head. “We’ll need all the tearblast and hardpoints we have, just to get enough of its armour off. But is it alone down there?”

No, turns out to be the answer. A lumbering, ursine machine comes into view. Pale blue-white patches show under the plates of its shoulders. So this would be…

Aloy actually curses softly. “Frostclaw. One of the machine types that I fought in the Cut. Don’t be fooled by its gait, it’ll move swiftly once it’s pissed off enough.” She bares her teeth, reaching up to start her Focus. “This really isn’t a combination I ever wanted to face.”

The other machine turns a little to face the Frostclaw, which seems to inspect it. In a flash, Its tail comes into view and…

“Well,” Rey gulps. “Now we know why they call it a Speartail.”

Vanasha adds a wordless “Yersh” sort of utterance. The machine’s tail is tipped with a cluster of wicked metal spikes. Each of them must be as long as the lance in Aloy’s hand.

“They’ll make good trophies,” Talanah offers. “Though I’d rather not get too close before the beasts are down.”

“Tearblast on those?” Rey asks. She’s got her Focus activated, but up til now she’s been scanning the Frostclaw, looking for its weaknesses.

“Hmm.” Aloy’s still scanning, looking to see if something else might be worth hitting first. 

Rey does the same. Even if there isn’t, she wants to have an idea of how to follow up an initial strike. The plates along its spine are the same sort that Snapmaws use to draw power from the sun, and there appear to be a lot of energy cells under the armour of its belly.

“No real weaknesses,” she says. “None that I can see.”

“But with the Frostclaw close, we can pull the same trick we did on the Snapmaw,” Talanah interjects. “Douse it with Chillwater. But that _does_ mean we need to get that shield down.”

Aloy spots the control point atop a pillar, and points the others to it. “Rey and I can probably reach it with our grappling hooks. Get that beam there, and swing across.”

Despite those confident words, it’s a nerve-wracking moment when their hooks clatter on the beam. Only the clamour below keeps the Frostclaw from detecting them, and Rey and Aloy time their swings carefully so as not to be seen. At the top of the ladder from the entryway, Talanah and Vanasha ready their weapons.

“Ready?” Aloy breathes. Rey turns a little and nods, already lining up her shot. Three hardpoint arrows, spearing into the Frostclaw’s shoulder armour and the Freeze sac beneath. That’ll do nicely for an opening gambit.

Aloy turns back to her own task, putting her spear to the control point. And that’s when everything goes wrong.

There’s a blaring, mechanical noise. The shield dissipates. The eyes of both the Frostclaw and Speartail flash red instantly. Rey takes the shot but the pillar suddenly shakes beneath her and the shot goes wide, damaging the armour but not destroying the sac.

Their nameless enemy is taking countermeasures.

“Keep shooting!” Rey shouts to Aloy, and leaps again with her grappling hook, down to the chamber floor. She drops into a roll, coming up with her lightsaber drawn as the Frostclaw screams up at Aloy, its hideous three-jawed mouth opening wide to show the grinding teeth within.

An arrow from Talanah makes the hit that Rey had fumbled, and Chillwater explodes over the two machines, coating them in ice. Aloy and Talanah seize on it, pelting them and tearing away bits of armour.

But even then, these are fiendishly strong machines. The Frostclaw has reared up on its hind legs to blast what looks like hail at Aloy, and the Speartail bulls at her, aiming to trample.

Veering to the side, she goes for the Frostclaw, whipping her saber across its armoured belly and wheeling away as it swings a mighty paw at her. It’s so much faster than something this bulky ought to be, but with Force on her side, Rey’s quicker. Now she’s between it and the alarming spikes of the Speartail. She hears a yell from Talanah to get clear, so she hurls herself into a slide. The heavy, impaling tail whips over her.

The descending pillars have brought her comrades down to the floor, and they take full advantage of the damage Rey’s done. Their shots hammer into its remaining shoulder sac and the Freeze unit on its chest, and both burst in a fountain of ice crystals. Again, the Speartail’s armour turns frost-rimed and brittle, and the Frostclaw finally falls to a bomb-strike by Vanasha which blows half its head away. 

While they finish it, Rey busies herself distracting the Speartail, dodging around its powerful but cumbersome movements and leaving glowing gashes in its armour while the others rain fire on it. They’re winning this, she thinks with a thrill.

Then two things go wrong. First, a part of the wall reveals itself to be a gate, grinding open so a second Frostclaw can come charging in. Second, the Speartail unveils another attack.

Hephaestus was clever when it came to weaponizing the Speartail, it turns out. The power caged in the machine’s belly bursts violently from two protrusions on its shoulders, arcing over the walls and bathing them in vivid blue light.

It’s like a flung net of lightning. Not even Rey’s quick enough to dodge this attack - it catches all four of them. With cries of pain, they’re sent flying by the blast. They land painfully and disoriented, and only Rey regains her feet immediately. Even then, it’s almost too late - the second Frostclaw’s upon her.

Rey throws herself back, but its heavy paw snaps out and catches her a glancing blow. Her armour stops the claws and the Force takes the very worst out of the impact, but it still has enough power to send her tumbling across the Cauldron floor. Straight into the path of the Speartail, which immediately breaks into a heavy charge.

“No!” Rey throws out a hand _,_ fingers curling into claws, and _yanks_. With a hideous scream of metal, the Speartail’s head is torn free of its shoulders.

“ _What?_ ” yell both Talanah and Vanasha, utterly shocked and even frightened.

But Rey hasn’t got time for that, and shouts “Get back!” as she throws herself clear, rolling to her feet. The decapitated Speartail is spasming, its spikes slashing through the airs as the tail swings back and forth. It crashes into the Frostclaw, crushing it against the wall with its bulk so one Freeze sac explodes, and slumps to the ground.

Aloy, at least, has taken the move in her stride, firing steadily at the weakened Frostclaw. The arrows tear into the machine’s now crumpled armour and now Rey advances on it, one hand out. Another wave of pressure coalesces and pounds the machine against the unyielding metal of the wall, and finally its heart shows. The other three women pelt the exposed weak point with arrows. With a shower of sparks, the Frostclaw finally falls.

For a long moment, there’s only the sound of the broken machines powering down. Rey turns to Aloy, and sees her breathing heavily, eyes wide. Which would be a relief. Except that Aloy’s eyes are already on Talanah and Vanasha, both of whom have arrows nocked and ready to take aim – at Rey.

“Whoah!” Aloy yells, racing to interpose herself. “Talanah, Vanasha, what are you doing?”

They pay her no heed, all their attention on Rey. “That,” Vanasha growls, “isn’t anything born of Horizon. What the hell did you do? Who the hell _are_ you?”

Rey does her best to deliver the twin bombshells of the Force and the wider Galaxy, in one go. The two Carja women digest it in silence, but clearly with difficulty.

“So,” Talanah says tersely. “This is what you’d said we wouldn’t believe. I think I see why.” She shakes her head, no longer outright hostile, but still looking at Rey with a new wariness. “Things from outside our world, beyond the Sun’s light, unknowable powers… this hurts my head.”

“Talanah,” Aloy says carefully, “Rey didn’t seek this out. She didn’t know this was here at all, right Rey?”

“Not a clue.” Rey searches Talanah’s face. “I want to get to the bottom of this and end this threat to your world. That’s all. Please, Sunhawk, trust me. And Vanasha?”

Vanasha’s expression is stony, but she looks to Talanah, who smiles and raises her hands. “Rey’s had our backs so far, and if a woman’s goodhearted enough to make Aloy like her, that’s enough for me.”

The spy frowns, only nodding reluctantly. “I can’t really argue with that. But I _will_ be keeping an eye on you, Rey. We don’t need this many surprises on a journey like this.”

Rey holds up her hands, as conciliatory as she can be. “That’s all I ask, Vanasha.”

Aloy coughs carefully. “Alright, ladies. If we’re all still friends, we have a defeated machine to look at.” There’s a longer pause than she’s happy with, before Talanah and Vanasha nod. Vanasha is slower to do so. “Then let’s begin. Those plates, they’re like the panels on Snapmaws.”

“Solar,” Rey nods, and points to the underbelly, exposed where the armour has been stripped away. She kneels to look closer, trying to ignore the way that the two Carja women are still looking at her. “Lots of Sparker in here, which suggests to me that these are being used to capture energy.”

“No machine needs Sparker brought to it,” Talanah interjects. “They all just make their own. The same as Cauldrons, as far as anyone knows.”

“Machines might,” Aloy says. “But perhaps there are other devices which need power, which these are being used to feed.”

“I reckon,” Rey says, approaching its head. “We can scan it, and see what the machines were looking for.” She pulls out her Override cylinder, activating her Focus at the same time. “Here we go…”

The dead machine’s mind is both complex and simple, designed to perform a myriad of functions, but all in service of a few overriding purposes. Most of its subfunctions are geared towards combat, and look to have been grafted onto its mind. She supposes that must be the imprint of the Derangement.

“Anything unusual in there?” Aloy asks.

Rey frowns in concentration. “Hard to say. There’s a lot of what feels normal in here… but wait.”

There’s something under the typical code, something which seems to have crept in and subtly altered the workings of the Speartail’s mind, just like a parasite. She delves further in, feeling like there are answers at her fingertips…

Then something seizes her brain in a vice-like grip. “Argh!” she cries out.

“Rey!” Aloy’s voice is barely audible, shut out by the pain. Rey feels penned-in, everything distant, except the feeling of the thing that locks itself around her mind. She barely musters the thought: what the fuck is this?

And a voice answers. +YOU.+ Rey groans in pain, marshalling her strength to hold against the attack. +HOW CAN _YOU_ BE HERE?+

“Get – out – of – my – _head!_ ” Rey shoves back hard, forcing the intruder out of her head. For a moment, there’s just numbing silence and a throb of pain in her head, where the voice just was. Then-

“Rey.” Aloy’s with her, squeezing her shoulder. “You alright?”

Rey draws a deep break and nods, though she’s not sure as to what she just saw. 

“You take a breather. I’ll see what I find when I reset the controls.”

The spear lights up as Aloy turns the Master Override on the Cauldron itself. Before their very eyes, the red light flickers and blinks out, replaced by the bright blue that normally characterises these structures. The Seeker is returning control of the structure to Hephaestus. Not a harmless move by any means, but at least Hephaestus hasn’t proved as malevolent as whatever had taken over.

And a moment later, that entity gains a name.  
  
“Kronos,” Aloy mutters, and uses her Focus to send Rey the feedback from the device. “You were right about another mind. This isn’t controlled by Hephaestus at all.”

She’s quiet for a moment, taking in more information.

“What do you see?” Talanah asks.

Aloy grunts, disengaging her spear. “It’s sending “units” south. It’s coded as a resource-gathering mission, but all I can see in the area is… a cave. It’s marked on their data maps.” She turns to the others. Her tone is brisk and businesslike, clearly her response to the discord in the group. “Then that’s where we head, and anything else, any disputes, we leave for now, right? Rey?”

But Rey’s still feeling unsteady, even as she regains her feet. Aloy steps in to help her up, giving her a smile that aims for reassuring. “The mind,” Rey says shakily. “I heard its voice. It sounded like it… knew me.”

“That can’t be, Rey.” Aloy’s voice is insistent. “It just probably wasn’t expecting someone to go poking around in the head of its toy, hmm?”

“Hmm.” Rey wonders about that. But she’s tired from the fight so maybe her perception isn’t the sharpest it could be right now. For now, that’s enough to sway her.

Later on, however, she can’t seem to muster up that defence any more.


	21. Troopers

The first of the confrontations that Aloy’s been dreading comes in the morning, when Rey’s down by a stream, fetching water. It comes with a quiet but hard voice.

"I hope you know what you're doing with her." Vanasha is standing over Rey, silhouetted by the morning sun.

Rey looks up from where she’s refilling the waterskins. "I beg your pardon?"

A little way off, Aloy pauses too, watching and listening carefully. She keeps a discreet distance, but that’s a struggle when she wants to leap in and demand that Vanasha drop this suspicion.

But she holds back. It’s a complicated situation. Rey has, after all, demonstrated powers that neither Vanasha or Talanah have ever seen before, and here on Horizon, new things tend to be dangerous.

Aloy takes some small comfort from the discomfort that Vanasha shows, however faintly, at her own hostility. She does like Rey - how couldn’t she when they’ve travelled and fought together? 

Still, the spy doesn’t acknowledge Rey’s feigned confusion for even a moment, because she sees right through it. "Aloy. I've seen her trying to laugh it off and just hide behind the word "girlfriend", but I read people well and she's no deceiver. She's smitten with you, and for her sake and yours, I hope you're just bad at saying the words too."

Aloy clenches her jaw, a whole world of conflicting emotions juddering in her heart now. The first is anger, anger that Vanasha just went and said it for her when she’s been so hesitant to speak the truth of her feelings. But she’s also full of anxiety over how Rey will respond to this. Add to that a sudden feeling of nakedness, quite different to just having her body bare to another.

Rey seems to make a point of ignoring that particular bombshell, and simply bristles. Either that, or she’s offended at the implication in Vanasha’s words. "I'm not used to being interrogated by supposed friends. Aren’t we that, Vanasha?"

It’s difficult to see Vanasha’s expression with the light like this, but Aloy studies her posture and the tension there is obvious. "Well, I'm unaccustomed to women who can break metal with a gesture. You've kept that from us." And Vanasha’s plainly wondering what else Rey has kept back.

"Not from Aloy. She saw me do it before we even spoke."

A strange kind of anger plucks at Vanasha’s lips. Aloy wonders what it signifies – anger that she’s kept this secret for Rey? She decides to leave her cover and cut off the confrontation.

“Well, at least you haven’t hidden it from _her_.” Vanasha’s about to say more, but a twig breaks under Aloy’s deliberate tread, a safe and non-suspicious distance away.

"Hey." Now Aloy's with them, outwardly none the wiser for what's been said. "Are we doing alright?"

“Getting by,” Vanasha says curtly, and withdraws.

That leaves her and Rey, still sealing the last skin. “You were there for all of that. I could sense you.”

“Ah.” Aloy feels a little uncomfortable at that, even if it’s Rey.

And Rey’s aware of that. A scowl paints her features. “I don’t see why that’s so different from you skulking in the bushes.”

“Fair point,” Aloy says, and puts a hand on Rey’s shoulder. “And sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you, and I shouldn’t judge. I know you never asked for any of that.”

“It’s alright.” The brunette sighs, the fight going out of her. “I hate this, Aloy. I hate losing Vanasha’s trust, and Talanah’s, like this.”

“You did what you had to. They’ll come round.”

“But it’s not just that.” Rey shakes her head. “Like I said, this thing, it came from outside. It knows me-”

“You can’t know that.” Rey makes as if to carry on, but Aloy doesn’t let her. “You can’t. And listen, we’ll find those machines and we’ll destroy them. Then we’ll look at this cave and see what we uncover there. You and I will stop this threat, wherever it came from.” She gives Rey an encouraging nod. “Hmm?”

Rey’s half-smile and nod are as much as she’s likely to get. Aloy takes that little victory, but the knot of worry in her stomach doesn’t abate.

The weather seems to be in a morose mood as well. Heavy clouds roll in from the south and rain spatters the Forsaken Hills. Soaked to the skin, the huntresses find nothing to improve their spirits.

It’s why they break from their journey and head downhill. There’s small fort, a little way off, and they decide to make a stop there. The distance isn’t far, though it’s almost invisible due to the lashing rain. Hopefully, if they can get dry and warm, they might get some cheer back.

But when they get close, they find there’s no one on the walls. No torches are lit. And yet the gates stand open.

“Where is…” Rey frowns. “Anybody?”

“Hiding?” Vanasha offers. “But that wouldn’t explain the gate.” She draws her sword, her worries about Rey temporarily forgotten. Rey brings her saber en garde in a two-handed grip, but doesn’t yet fire it up. 

“No signs of people fleeing,” she says. “Actually, look here.” There are weapons lying in the mud. Some are broken, but others are intact.

Aloy crouches down to inspect. “The Dlesam don’t strike me as the sort to leave their weapons behind.”

“And yet,” Talanah’s voice comes from a doorway, “looking inside, the stores have been ransacked. Personal effects left, including clothes, but the food is all gone. I think we’re looking at an abduction.”

“Second that.” Now Vanasha’s beckoning them over. “See here, arrows. And they appear to be Dlesam,” she adds. Bending close to one of the shafts, she tilts her head and looks up at the walls around them. “I think these were fired from the walls.”

Inside the village? The other three women frown. That means that whoever entered the village and seized its people broke down the gate too quickly for the defenders to react.

It all speaks to a frightening efficiency on the part of the attackers. No bodies, and with the rain it’s hard to say if there are even bloodstains on the wood and stone. There’s a suggestion of tracks in the mud, and while Aloy goes to investigate, Talanah and Vanasha head up to the walls, looking to see if any arrows were fired outwards.

Aloy shivers, and it’s only partly down to the cold. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she admits to Rey, standing close to her. “It’s not the carnage that Hades and the Eclipse left behind them, but this is almost worse.”

Rey comes close and takes hold of her arm. “I know what you mean. The First Order used to do things like this, but they left calling cards of a sort. This, though… it doesn’t feel like the work of people. It’s too efficient.”

Aloy pauses, marking well Rey’s mention of her old enemies. Why does it bring such a chill stealing up her spine?

She might have pondered it longer, but then Talanah shouts and that brings her back to the present.

Rey looks at her questioningly. Then they hear it. A steady tramping of feet – several pairs of armoured feet. Soldiers on the march. Which, in this situation, is even stranger.

It’s coming from the east, toward the Forsaken Hills, so they race to that side of the village and clamber up onto the walls. The other two have already circled round, scanning the rain-lashed incline.

They all turn to Vanasha, Rey speaking first. “I’ve only seen Carja soldiers move like that here, that proper marching pace. Do the Dlesam?” Then a nastier thought seems to occur to her. “The Tenakth?”

“No.” The spy shakes her head. “The Tenakth are a horde. Well, several hordes for the most part. This kind of discipline is beyond them.”

And it’s all wrong for the Dlesam. No one silently marches up to their own ravaged settlement, do they? For a moment, possibilities flit through Aloy’s mind. A splinter faction? Shadow Carja who fled into the jungle and beyond, to find a new master? But then the truth emerges, literally, and it’s none of those things.

What she sees first is, to her surprise, a Longleg. Another appears, both skinned in the now familiar black and red metal of their mysterious enemy. But more striking are the human-shaped figures who come with it.

At first, Aloy thinks they must be men, which would be striking enough because they’re armoured so heavily. Not even Oseram go to war like that, helmets completely obscuring their faces. There’s no mail, it’s all plate of a strange, flowing design which still looks stark and brutal.

But then they get closer, and light shines from their helmets, piecing the gloom. Red Ts glow fiercely in the centre of their metal faces. In their hands they carry swords or guns – the latter look like the same pulse guns that Scrappers have, she thinks.

Activating her Focus only confirms what she’s already intuited. These are no men at all.

"They have no life," Rey says, worriedly. "Those figures.” She’s come to the same conclusion as Aloy, only by a different route.

Talanah shoots her a look. “What are you saying?”

Rey’s dark eyes are wide. “I don’t think those are people out there.”

Vanasha has no time for reflection right now. “They move like men, they're men. And if they wear the livery of the enemy, they die like them too.” But then they come closer, and she draws a breath. The look she shoots Rey is wide-eyed, and her lips are pulled back from her teeth. “Sun above, you were right. Machine-men.”

“What do we call them?” Aloy wonders.

“Troopers,” Rey suggests instinctively. “It feels like the only right name. So they’ll be here to comb the village for anyone who’s left. Maybe we can use that.”

“Hmm,” Aloy says. “It’ll be tricky, because the Longlegs can scan for us. But if I can get behind cover, and one comes close…”

The override, the others all know immediately. “But will your trick work on one of these machines?” asks Talanah.

“Not certain,” Aloy admits. “But if it fails, at least I can fell the target quickly.”

Talanah nods. “We’ll cover you.”

“And I’ll get in close too,” Rey adds. She draws her saber, not yet igniting it, and moves into place behind a pillar, smoothing her tracks as best she can as she goes. Aloy does the same, concealing herself within a storeroom, while Talanah and Vanasha fall back.

The machines reach the broken gate, and she hears their metal feet on the gravel and in the mud. Her Focus lets her sense them beyond the hut she’s sheltering in. There’s a guttural blurting from one of the machines, she guesses it’s a Trooper. At that, the glowing outline of a Longleg turns and stalks towards Aloy’s hiding place.

Let it come, Aloy reminds herself. Hold still, keep quiet. She’s done this before. So just be patient and then, when the Longleg is close enough...

Aloy springs silently out of cover, levelling her spear at the Longleg’s head. The machine freezes, blue cables snaking out from under its armour. Aloy’s aware of the others beginning to move. They can’t risk her being interrupted, which means she needs a distraction.

Rey provides that distraction, bursting from cover with a yell and the snap of her saber. She pounces on one of the Troopers, bringing her saber down in a leaping swing that bisects it.

No longer is she trying to conceal her powers. She throws herself up in a leap that carries her over a Longleg, swinging her saber out to take its head off. Then she comes down and strikes another Trooper. A laser snaps towards her but Rey deflects it, leaving a smoking hole in a red eyelens.

Aloy isn’t idle either. A Trooper comes at her, swinging its sword. It’s more powerful than any man she’s fought, even Helis, but it lacks a certain artfulness. She swerves and sways away from the blade, then knocks it aside with a swipe of her spear and rams her own weapon home, through the chest. Its armour is tough, but not hard enough to turn her lance aside.

Nor, it seems, are they insusceptible to their fellow machines. The turned Longleg jumps another Trooper, puncturing its torso. It scorches others, and fells two more before it finally falls under the gun-blasts and cuts of the Troopers.

Vanasha and Talanah even the odds with their bows - one Trooper seizes up when a shock arrow strikes it, and Aloy plunges her spear up under its chin. The rest go down, except for one, which Rey splits in two with her amber blade.

She stands there, breathing hard, rain steaming when it meets her lightsaber. Aloy’s moved to draw close, and takes hold of her free hand. “Hey. You alright?” she murmurs, hoping despite everything that Rey feels a little better now. To fight and win as the four of them is reassuring to Aloy - not to mention a chance to vent a little - and she hopes it is for Rey as well.

Rey nods. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Aloy manages to give her a small smile. “Just wanted to say, whatever the other two might think, I’m glad we’ve got you and your powers with us.”

With the fight done, they have a chance to study the machines, especially the Troopers. Notably, their weapons look like they’ve been made in a Cauldron as well as the machines. “There’s no sign of craft in them,” as Talanah puts it, turning a sword over in her hands. “They all look the same.”

Rey, however, only has eyes for the Troopers. She pauses to nudge one with her foot, caught up in a thought. "Inspired, I guess."

"What do you mean?" Aloy asks her.

“It did what Hephaestus couldn’t,” Rey says. “It recognised the strengths of people, and how to use them. Now, it’s got infantry as well as everything else.”

“But why?” Talanah frowns. “We've taken on all kinds of machines. Why would this thing, Kronos, even want infantry if it can get Ripclaws and Speartails?"

"What," Rey asks quietly, "is the predator with the widest territory in Horizon? What kills people as readily as any machine, adapts to use any weapon, uses its ingenuity to kill foes dozens of times its own size?"

Aloy nods, frowning. "Humans."

Her lover nods gravely. "Now take that potential and add armoured skin, strength beyond the mightiest Brave and machine senses to guide it. Something, an interloper in the framework GAIA left, is making metal men to serve it."

Aloy steps in front of her, shaking her head. "But it's not behaving like Hades. It's not killing, at least not more than it needs to get control."

Rey raises a finger. “Which is what’s useful about the Troopers, I’ll bet. They can restrain people - like this.” She comes close to Talanah and takes hold of her shoulder. “A Flamefang can’t do that.” Letting go, she steps away. “That's why I think there's an organic mind at the root of all this. What it's after isn't within any of the paradigms of GAIA and the others, and so there aren't provisions for it. It wants things that Cauldron processes can't provide.”

Nodding in agreement, Aloy ponders the attack itself. “The herd, convoy or whatever we saw in the Cauldron’s system wasn’t going to the cave, at least not first. It _was_ on a resource mission, but its target was here.” She turns to the others. “A village. The resources it wants are people.”

Talanah coughs. "Can we get that translated? Aside from you, only Aloy speaks Offworld."

Rey nods apologetically. “Something is perverting the means by which machines are created. It’s not doing so in the way of the Derangement, it’s not just taking the forms of beasts and using those for a template, and the machines it creates or takes over are being used to enslave people instead of to wipe them out.”

“So what’s behind it?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Rey puts a single fingertip to her temple. “A person. Or at least a mind which began as a person.”

“You got any more than that?” Aloy half-raises her arms, the old nervous tic when she gets worked up. She catches herself and gives Rey an apologetic look. “Sorry. But if you know any more, we need it.”

“I’ve got more.” Her girlfriend swallows; she clearly doesn’t like what she’s about to say. She picks up one of the machine-men’s heads. “You see this, this… helmet? I know the design. It takes after armour from a long time ago, an old war.”

“Out in…” A chill steals up Aloy’s spine, and she can feel her heart rate rising. “Out in the stars?” So this has been made by something from Offworld, she realises. Something very old, and very violent.

Talanah looks openly astonished at this revelation. She breathes “By the Sun,” and steadies herself with her spear. Vanasha moves to stand with her, slipping an arm around her waist. The spy looks less startled, but worry glints in her narrowed eyes.

Rey nods at Aloy’s words, and when she speaks again the words are taut with worry. “Aloy, I think it wants to build an empire from Horizon.” She swallows, and speaks in a low, quiet voice. “And it knows me. I might be a part of its plans.”

“You can’t be sure of that, Rey.” Aloy’s eyes are brimming with concern. “Just because of what Vanasha said… damnit Rey, Vanasha’s a spy. She’s meant not to trust easily. But I know you. That’s not who you are, OK?”

Rey’s almost certainly heard those words before, or words like them. Aloy knows that, and knows that it’ll only do so much to quieten her lover’s worries. But Rey nods and puts on a brave face.

“Good. Now let’s go.”


	22. Amid the Darkness

After the fight, they scavenge and restock their supply of arrows. They gather up the weapons they can’t easily carry and cache them. There’s no time to move the machines; they’ll have to be left to the Glinthawks and Scrappers.

Then they have to move on - there’s a kidnapped village to find. “But I don’t see how,” Aloy confesses. “Raining so hard, I can’t see anything beyond the village except for the machines which came at us.

In the absence of any way to track the abductees themselves, they follow the path of the machines they fought, and find that it winds back toward the Forsaken Hills. Towards the cave they learned about in the Cauldron, Aloy suspects.

Along the way, she asks about the droids that Rey’s encountered, seizing on what she says about the Separatists and their mechanical armies. Especially the tales about droid commanders which refused to shut themselves down. One of them must have come here, she says. Or one of their organic leaders, who knew how to work droids and therefore must have been able to take over machines. What Kronos said to Rey was just its surprise, she’s sure of it.

But Rey can't keep from turning it over and over in her head for hours; the voice she heard, and the fear. She tries to deceive herself and insist that the thing she encountered had mistaken herself for someone else. To say that Aloy’s right. But she knows it would be a deception.

Something from her world, her world of Jedi and Sith and ruinous war is here, on this planet. So suddenly, Rey's relationship with Aloy takes on a new and frightening aspect, going from a source of solace to a peril. Lying next to her lover that night, Rey finds herself eyeing her warily. Where before she’s only had eyes for her strength, she’s suddenly very aware that Aloy is still human. Aloy is still vulnerable, just as she was to the Ripclaw’s attack. Kronos could target her girlfriend, using her to hurt Rey. Beneath that there's an even more insidious fear, the fear that like last time, connecting with her will doom Aloy.

Rey can't let that happen. She can't let someone else she loves - oh _crap_. She rolls onto her back, feeling the horribly hard thump of her heart. Oh Force, _no_. That's there too now, crystallised. The affection between them has grown too strong for Rey to call it anything but love.

And she fears too much for Aloy to say it aloud.

Quiet those thoughts. Sleep. She'll deal with this tomorrow. She'll keep Aloy safe, and if she turns out to be the danger herself… she'll deal with it.

But that's easier to think than do. Sleep is a long time coming, even with Aloy’s arms around her.

"What's up with you today?" Aloy demands, when they’re clearing up breakfast at a nearby stream. She’s been waiting all morning to get far enough away from Vanasha and Talanah to broach the issue. Both of them still seem on edge around Rey, and Aloy has no desire to make this more severe than it could get already.

"Nothing's _up_ with me today, Aloy," Rey protests. “Nothing beyond the mission.”

"Liar.” She tries to make it playful, but instead it comes out as an accusation. “You've been distant all morning. Something’s different.” She searches Rey’s face before she continues, her voice brimming with concern. “Is it what happened with Vanasha yesterday?"

“No.”

“Then what was it?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, Rey.” Aloy gives her a downright exasperated look. “I already know you too well for that.”

Rey has to concede that she’s right, much as she doesn’t want to admit it.

Aloy persists. "Is it about what you found in the Speartail’s head?"

“Yes. What else would it be?” Rey glares at her. “I don’t care what you say, I know what I felt. That thing – Kronos – it _knows_ me. And if it’s not what you think, if it’s not some aged alien general or rogue droid mind, then it has to be a thing of the Dark Side.” She swallows. “Of the darkness in me.”

“Rey.” Aloy shakes her head. “You talk about this darkness, but I don’t see it in you.”

“It’s in my blood.”

“And what the hell does your blood matter? Nothing.” Aloy makes an exasperated motion with the pot in her hand. “Nothing.”

Rey feels a familiar chill at that. “Someone else once told me the same thing. And yet, people have died because of this thing under my skin.” Her heart is drumming fast in her chest now. “The Force, Aloy, it gives power to those who it chooses, or those born into it, and then it makes people like me into an avalanche. We just roll over anything in our path, and people just get swept away. And I can’t-”

“Can’t what?” There’s exasperation in Aloy’s face and in her voice, but more than that. There’s a want. Rey feels an answering emotion stir in her own breast.

Panic takes over. “I have to go to the others,” she blurts, grabbing the dried items and trying not to run away.

Aloy’s hurt expression follows her all the way out of sight. Rey doesn’t look back, but she knows it.

No one’s mood improves as they progress. Even more than before, the Forsaken Hills seem to steal the warmth and colour from the sun, as the huntresses close on their destination. It’s midday when they reach it, but it might as well be the last light of winter.

The cavern gapes before them like a hungry mouth in the bare rock, as menacing as the Cauldron to Rey’s eyes. The shadows seem much deeper here, somehow, and as they get closer…

“ _Nng_ ,” Rey grunts, stumbling for a moment. “Tell me you feel that.” Though in truth, she hopes Aloy doesn’t. For Rey, it’s a horrid pressure, needling at her… or maybe it’s more like nails or claws, scratching away inside her head.

“I feel…” Aloy grimaces, shaking her head as though that can dislodge it. “There’s _something_ there, but it doesn’t feel like anything of this world.”

Rey turns to her. “That’s because it isn’t.”

“Then what is it?” Talanah asks, her face scrunched up in discomfort.

Rey takes one more step, and it feels as though she’s plunged into ice. She staggers, slipping to one knee. “It’s…” she gasps. “It’s the Dark Side of the Force. Here, on Horizon.”

There’s no denying it now. The maw of the cave opens wide for her, a monster hungering for the sacrificial princess. It _wants_ her.

“I’ll never be free of it,” she whispers, feeling desperation tie her stomach in cold knots. “This only ends one way.” She tries to get up, fails – but then Aloy’s walking past her. “No!” Rey surges up, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

Aloy looks disbelieving, outraged even. “What-”

“You need to stay here,” Rey insists, not even trying to suppress the shaking of her voice. "This is bigger than your planet, Aloy. Don’t follow me, I can't let it swallow you up like-"

Aloy gets right up in her face, grabbing her hand. "You don't get to tell me when to butt out of fighting for my own world. Or you."

Rey tugs her hand roughly out of Aloy’s grip and turns away.

“You can’t tell me to leave you. I’m not letting you face whatever’s in there alone!”

Aloy starts forward again, Rey feels it. Feels the passion that drives her, the care. And it confirms all her worst fears.

“Rey-”

“ _No!_ ” She does her best to restrain the Force Push. It’s enough to not hurt Aloy, but it knocks the other woman clean off her feet. Aloy rolls over, coming up on her knees and starting at Rey with wide eyes. Talanah and Vanasha are frozen with shock. Whatever mistrust they’ve conceived for Rey of late, they hadn’t imagined this.

Rey finds she’s shaking with horror at the long-suppressed violence in her, now that it’s come boiling up to the surface. The Palpatine in her, which she fled from, but can never outrun. Now it wraps icy tendrils around her heart.

“I’m sorry!” she cries. “I can’t, I-” She shakes her head helplessly, turns and runs, into the dark.

Not far in, she loses the light entirely along with the cries of the others, and has to ignite her saber to see where she’s going.

But if she’s honest with herself, she probably doesn’t _need_ the light. In here, the Dark Side hangs so thickly that the shadows are like a beacon. Where they are deepest, she must go. There’s a presence, which she senses like a shape sunk way down in water. Impossible to make out details, but it’s there.

Around her, the walls of the cave are dank and wet, glistening in the amber glow of her lightsaber. The tunnels wind through rock that’s cold, and treacherously slippery. That chill steals any heat from the air, and even the light her weapon casts seems wan and drained of warmth. It feels appropriate, somehow.

Bones break under her boots, the bones of little animals, and with each one there’s a little sigh of fear and misery, like the ghost of a moan seeping into the Force. It’s like a little bit of Exegol, sucking in light and life and leaving only suffering.

Well, it’s not getting anyone else today. No one but Rey is being offered as a sacrifice. She won’t let the shadows claim another life in her place again.

It’s not just Horizon she owes it to. Finn and all her other friends will be in danger if this gets loose. And she can’t even call on them. They’re too far away now, with her in thison this no-tech world. A signal will take weeks to reach them, and it’ll take more weeks for any help to come. There’s _no time_ , and it only adds to the desperate feeling deep in Rey’s heart.

The core of the darkness is close now, though now a noisome ghost-light steals up on her. She wonders for a moment if it's some kind of fungus which gives out light, but there’s no life around her. This is something born of the Dark Side, a mockery of illumination.

Rey lifts her lightsaber to outshine it and make a grim show of defiance to whatever presence makes its lair here. “Come on,” she rasps. “Let’s have it out then, you and me. You don’t belong here any more than I do.”

Silence is her only reply. There’s not even the dripping of water here.

Rey draws back the weapon. She tries to mask her fear with anger, and snarls a challenge to the shadows around her. “Come on!”

The darkness comes on. And it strikes with a fury to match any machine.

The saber is torn out of her grip. Rey snarls and swings a fist, only to be rocked back like she’s buffeted by a gale-force wind. She snarls and pushes back. The gale is dispelled, pushed back.

Her victory, however, is short-lived. Because then the seeming hurricane reveals itself to be the grip of a massive phantom hand, closing like a vice around her. Her arms lock to her sides, and the thought hisses through Rey’s mind: Kylo Ren once immobilised her in exactly the same way.

All Rey can do is try and fight it, try and see who or what’s doing it to her. With a roar of effort, she breaks free. Breathing hard, she casts around her. No, _there_ it is…

When she sees, it staggers her. A hooded figure steps from the shadows, slender and wraithlike, pulling the cowl back from a pale, gaunt face. A face that Rey immediately recognises – because how couldn’t she recognise her own face?


End file.
